[jowday]

That’s common parlance in archeology for ancient languages in that region.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Semitic-speaking_peo...

[jonstewart]

And in linguistics. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semitic_languages

[thaumasiotes]

It's not specialized at all; "Semitic" is the only word for this concept used in English.

In German they still talk about Hamito-Semitic languages, but we call those Afroasiatic now.