Well attestedNamed from the place
Boston Brahmin
noun · first attested 1860
A New England aristocracy named after an Indian priestly caste by a Boston doctor.
A member of Boston's old-moneyed, Harvard-educated establishment families.
42.3603°N -71.0578°W · Q100
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Attested
- 1860
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Boston
- In English
Boston Brahmin
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. coined the Brahmin caste of New England in his novel Elsie Venner, which began serialization in 1860, borrowing the Hindu priestly class to describe Boston's bookish gentry. The label stuck to families such as the Cabots and Lowells and is now used as often in mockery as in description.
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