Forms: 5–7 bragman, 6 bramane, 7–9 brachman(e, -min, 7 brackman, braman, men, -mine, -miny, 8–9 bramin, 8– brahmin, 9 brahman. [ad. Skr. brāhmana, f. brahman praise, worship; some of the older Eng. forms were derived from or influenced by the Greek spelling βραχμᾶνες (pl.), L. brachmāni, -es, and med.L. corruptions; the form Brahmin, a corruption of the Indian vernacular pronunciation, is still all but universal in popular use; during the nineteenth century Orientalists have adopted the more correct Brahman, which (often written Brâhman or Bráhman) is employed by most writers on India. (Usually with capital B.)]
A member of the highest or priestly caste among the Hindus.
1481. Caxton, Myrr., II. v. 70. Other peple whiche ben callyd … bragman whiche ben fayrer than they to fore named.
1553. Eden, Treat. New Ind. (Arb.), 17. Their Priestes (called Bramini).
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. I. 252. The Bramanes which are their priests.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 50. An ancient Braminy, a devout Wretch.
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., iii. 66. The Bramines of Agra mark themselves in the Forehead.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Brackmans, a sect of Philosophers in India.
1676. Dryden, Aurengz., III. i. Take the preaching Brachman hence.
1684. Burnet, Th. Earth, III. iii. 17. The modern Indian philosophers, the reliques of the old bragmans.
1711. Pope, Temp. Fame, 100. And Brachmans, deep in desert woods rever’d.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), II. xv. i. 406, note. He was fond of the brachmins or indian priests.
1835–41. Thirlwall, Greece, VII. liv. 39 (L.). A whole community of Brahmins may have preserved the purity of their blood.
1842. Prichard, Nat. Hist. Man, 163. Aryavarta was the Holy Land of the Brahmans.
b. fig.
1823. Byron, Juan, XIII. lxxxiii. Thirty-three Of highest caste—the Brahmins of the ton.
1859. O. W. Holmes, Elsie V., i. Title, The Brahmin caste of New England.
c. attrib., as in Brahman-slayer; also Brahmin beads, the corrugated seeds of Elæocarpus, used by the Brahmins and others as necklaces; Brahmin ox (cf. BRAHMINEE a.), a humped variety of the ox; † Brahmin-pope, a chief Brahmin (obs.).
1613. Purchas, Pilgr., Descr. India. All men, and the King himselfe, adore the Bramen-Pope.
1847. Carpenter, Zool., § 269. The Zebu or Brahmin Ox.
1856. Farmer’s Mag., Jan., 10. There were also some other crosses … between the Brahmin and our own native races.
1858. Muir, Sanskr. Texts, I. 161. The city had been robbed of its glory by those Brahman-slayers.
Hence Brahmanhood, the rank or position of a Brahmin.
1840. H. H. Wilson, Vishṇu Puráṇa, 405. Who … obtained Brahmanhood through devotion.
1866. Reader, 17 March, 269. The issue of such marriage being admissible to the Bráhmanhood in the seventh generation.
