Boston Brahmin
The Boston Brahmins or Boston elite are members of Boston's historic upper class.[1] They are often associated with a cultivated New England or Mid-Atlantic dialect and accent,[2] Harvard University,[3] Anglicanism,[4] and traditional British American customs and clothing. Descendants of the earliest English colonists are typically considered to be the most representative of the Boston Brahmins.[5][6] They are considered White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs).[7][8][9]
Etymology[edit]
The phrase "Brahmin Caste of New England" was first coined by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., a physician and writer, in an 1860 article in The Atlantic Monthly.[10] The term Brahmin refers to the priestly caste within the four castes in the Hindu caste system. By extension, it was applied in the United States to the old wealthy New England families of British Protestant origin that became influential in the development of American institutions and culture. The influence of the old American gentry has been reduced in modern times, but some vestiges remain, primarily in the institutions and the ideals that they championed in their heyday.[11]