a. and sb. [f. Caucasus, name of a mountain range between the Black Sea and the Caspian + -IAN.] Of or belonging to the region of the Caucasus; a name given by Blumenbach (a 1800) to the ‘white’ race of mankind, which he derived from the region of the Caucasus. Hence sb. A member of this family, an Indo-European. (Now practically discarded.)
1807. W. Lawrence, Short Syst. Compar. Anat.
1847. Carpenter, Zool., § 141. Those nations (commonly termed Caucasian) which in the form of their skulls and other physical characters resemble Europeans.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, I. vi. 36. Three varieties or principal races (Caucasian, Mongolian, and Ethiopian).
