Zen Buddhist, adj. & n.

zen-buddhist
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zen-buddhist_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# Zen Buddhistadjective & noun

## Factsheet

### What does the word Zen Buddhist mean?

There are two meanings listed in OED's entry for the word Zen Buddhist. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

### How common is the word Zen Buddhist?

About 0.08occurrences per million words in modern written English

1910 | 0.0044
1920 | 0.0092
1930 | 0.016
1940 | 0.024
1950 | 0.034
1960 | 0.048
1970 | 0.061
1980 | 0.075
1990 | 0.082
2000 | 0.088
2010 | 0.094

### Where does the word Zen Buddhist come from?

Earliest known use

1910s

The earliest known use of the word Zen Buddhist is in the 1910s.

OED's earliest evidence for Zen Buddhist is from 1917, in the writing of J. G. Fletcher.

### Nearby entries

1. zemiistic, adj. 1907–
2. zemirah, n. 1767–
3. zemni, n. 1775–
4. Zemsky Sobor, n. 1877–
5. zemstvo, n. 1865–
6. zemstvoist, n. 1904–
7. Zen, n. & adj. 1727–
8. Zen, v. 1968–
9. zenana, n. & adj. 1761–
10. zenana cloth, n. 1885–
11. Zen Buddhist, adj. & n.1917–
12. Zend, n. & adj. 1700–
13. zendaletto, n. 1789–
14. Zend-Avesta, n. 1630–
15. Zend-Avestaic, adj. 1816
16. Zend-Avestan, adj. & n. 1871–
17. Zend-Avestic, adj. 1864–
18. Zendic, n. & adj. 1771–
19. Zendician, n. a1833–66
20. Zendicism, n. 1697–
21. Zendish, adj. & n. 1802–1921

## Meaning & use

1. 1917–
   a. adj.Of or relating to Zen Buddhism or its teachings; b. n. a person who practises Zen Buddhism.
   Cf. Zennist adj., which is attested slightly earlier.
   1. 1917

      > The artists who achieved this summit were trained in the Zen Buddhist doctrine.

      J. G. Fletcher in Dial 11 January 4/1
   2. 1920

      > With as much of the calm dignity of a Zen Buddhist as he is able to exhibit, he raises [the bowl]..and takes a large sip.

      McClure's Magazine December 61/1
   3. 1923

      > It remained for the Chinese Zen Buddhists to invent their own methods according to their own needs and insight.

      Eastern Buddhist (Japan) vol. 2 341
   4. 1965

      > The canons of Japanese aesthetic appreciations were formulated to a very large degree under the influence of Zen Buddhist philosophy.

      W. Swaan, Japanese Lantern v. 58
   5. 2012

      > Poetry causes us to be, in the Zen Buddhists' term, ‘mindful’.

      Star Beacon (Ashtabula, Ohio) 26 December a4/5
   6. 2014

      > Breath counting is a standard practice in many forms of meditation and is often used in the Zen Buddhist practice of Zazen.

      J. B. Ford, Auto Process Therapy iv. 37
   Buddhism
   1. Zennist 1904–
      a. adj. Of or relating to Zen Buddhism or its teachings; b. n. a person who practises Zen Buddhism; a Zen Buddhist.
   2. Zen master 1907–
      An experienced or advanced practitioner of Zen Buddhism, esp. one who teaches or mentors others.
   3. Zen Buddhist 1917–
      a. adj.Of or relating to Zen Buddhism or its teachings; b. n. a person who practises Zen Buddhism.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

Zen Buddhist typically occurs about 0.08 times per million words in modern written English.

Zen Buddhist is in frequency band 3, which contains words occurring between 0.01 and 0.1 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands

Frequency data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.

### Frequency of Zen Buddhist, adj. & n., 1910–2010

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Historical frequency series are derived from Google Books Ngrams (version 2), a data set based on the Google Books corpus of several million books printed in English between 1500 and 2010.

The overall frequency for a given word is calculated by summing frequencies for the main form of the word, any plural or inflected forms, and any major spelling variations.

For sets of homographs (distinct entries that share the same word-form, e.g. mole, n.¹, mole, n.², mole, n.³, etc.), we have estimated the frequency of each homograph entry as a fraction of the total Ngrams frequency for the word-form. This may result in inaccuracies.

Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the Google Books corpus.

Decade | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
1910 | 0.0044
1920 | 0.0092
1930 | 0.016
1940 | 0.024
1950 | 0.034
1960 | 0.048
1970 | 0.061
1980 | 0.075
1990 | 0.082
2000 | 0.088
2010 | 0.094

Originally published as part of the entry for Zen, n. & adj.

Zen, n. & adj. was revised in June 2018.