Zen master, n.

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

# Zen masternoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun Zen master mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun Zen master. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

### How common is the noun Zen master?

About 0.2occurrences per million words in modern written English

1910 | 0.03
1920 | 0.032
1930 | 0.045
1940 | 0.068
1950 | 0.1
1960 | 0.13
1970 | 0.17
1980 | 0.19
1990 | 0.22
2000 | 0.22
2010 | 0.23

### Where does the noun Zen master come from?

Earliest known use

1900s

The earliest known use of the noun Zen master is in the 1900s.

OED's earliest evidence for Zen master is from 1907, in Journal Pali Text Soc. 1906–7.

### Nearby entries

1. zenith point, n. 1585–
2. zenith sector, n. 1775–
3. zenith sweep, n. 1790–
4. zenith telescope, n. 1803–
5. zenith tube, n. 1825–
6. zenithward, n., adv., & adj. 1655–
7. zenithwards, adv. 1826–
8. Zenker, n.¹ 1872–
9. Zenker, n.² 1894–
10. Zen-like, adj. a1908–
11. Zen master, n.1907–
12. Zenned-out, adj. 1968–
13. Zennist, adj. & n. 1904–
14. zeno-, comb. form
15. zenocentric, adj. 1911–
16. Zenocratically, adv. 1588
17. zenographic, adj. 1853–
18. zenographical, adj. 1853–
19. zenography, n. 1890–
20. Zenonian, adj.¹ & n.¹ 1654–
21. Zenonian, adj.² 1756–

## Meaning & use

1. 1907–
   An experienced or advanced practitioner of Zen Buddhism, esp. one who teaches or mentors others.
   1. 1907

      > Each Zen master must be sanctioned and authorized by his predecessor.

      Journal Pali Text Soc. 1906–7 13
   2. 1950

      > As the Zen Masters like paradoxically to put it, ‘Buddha never taught the saving truth.’

      A. Huxley, Themes & Variations 98
   3. 2015

      > She was sitting with her legs folded up like a Zen master.

      J. Leck, After Dark 18
   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 master typically occurs about 0.2 times per million words in modern written English.

Zen master is in frequency band 4, which contains words occurring between 0.1 and 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 master, 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 | 0.03
1920 | 0.032
1930 | 0.045
1940 | 0.068
1950 | 0.1
1960 | 0.13
1970 | 0.17
1980 | 0.19
1990 | 0.22
2000 | 0.22
2010 | 0.23

### Frequency of Zen master, n., 2017–2024

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Modern frequency series are derived from a corpus of 20 billion words, covering the period from 2017 to the present. The corpus is mainly compiled from online news sources, and covers all major varieties of World English.

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 corpus.

Period | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
2017 | 0.014
2018 | 0.011
2019 | 0.011
2020 | 0.015
2021 | 0.013
2022 | 0.011
2023 | 0.013
2024 | 0.013

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

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