Brahmin vs Brahman

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Sat, 23 Mar 2002, Sridhar wrote:

> However, I am not sure
> about the phonetic similarity. What do the two pronounciations -
>
> braahmaNa
>
> and
>
> bram-han
>
> represent?
>

The inflections are different because the gender is different but the root
word is the same.

Aptes' dictionary gives a couple more meanings of brahmana which I missed.

* omkara

* the splendor or power of a Brahmana (i.e. synonym for brahmavarchas)

* celibacy (i.e. a synonym for brahmacharya)

* The supervising priest of a shrauta yagna (Can belong to Atharvaveda or
  any other Veda)

* ... and a number of others such as hymn, moksha, tapa, wealth which seem
to be secondarily derived from one of the other meanings.

--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
It's a girl! See the pictures - http://www.braincells.com/shailaja/