During class on Thursday, we briefly went over the meaning of what Zion was, and you asked for us to look into it. The etymology of the word is Sion (Late Old English) → Seon (Greek) → Tsiyon (Hebrew), which was a hill with a fortress in Jerusalem.
Zionism’s etymology dates back to 1896, which roots from the German word, Zionismus. This was first seen in 1886, “Selbstemancipation” (or Auto-Emancipation) by Nathan Birnbaum, who took inspiration from Pinkser’s Auto-Emancipation: An Appeal to His People
It appears that Zion also refers to “Mount Zion” where Yahweh is, and in the Old Testament, Jerusalem is known to be “the daughter of Zion”
https://www.etymonline.com/word/zion
https://www.etymonline.com/word/Zionism#etymonline_v_40092
https://www.britannica.com/place/Zion-hill-Jerusalem
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/quot-auto-emancipation-quot-leon-pinsker
http://ieg-ego.eu/en/mediainfo/the-newspaper-selbst-emancipation
