It denotes the agricultural population, whatever their origin may have been.

Another word of similar signification is Hivite.

If any distinction is to be drawn between them, it is that the term Perizzite was specially applied to the fellahin of southern Canaan, while the term Hivite was restricted to the inhabitants of the north.

In two passages, it is true, "Hivite" seems to be used with an ethnic meaning.

Esau is said in one of them to have married the granddaughter of "Zibeon the Hivite," while in the other we read of "the Hivite" who dwelt under Mount Hermon.