bonzen.

Etymology: Apparently (partly via other European languages: see note) < (i) Portuguese bonzo (1549 in plural as bonzos , bomzos : see note), †bôzo, †buozo (both 1578), and its etymon (ii) Japanese bonzu, regional variant of bōzu (formerly bauzu ) head priest's living quarters, head priest (12th cent.), head of the monks' quarters (13th cent.), Buddhist priest (15th cent.; 1603 as bŏzu in Vocabulario da Lingoa de Iapam, glossed as ‘monk who has his own cell, or hermit’). In early use in English (especially in α. forms) apparently chiefly via the plural forms post-classical Latin bonzii (1553: see note), bonzi (1563 or earlier), and perhaps also Italian bonzi (1553: see note). In later use (iii) (in β. forms) also directly < Japanese bōzu.Origin of the Japanese word. Japanese bōzu is < Middle Chinese (compare Chinese fáng house and zhǔ master, owner); in Japanese also written with the kanji for bō (formerly bau) quarter of a town, priest's living quarters (corresponding to the character for Chinese fāng quarter of a town). Transmission into European languages. The word was apparently first brought to Europe in the letters of St Francis Xavier, who wrote in Portuguese; it initially appears in a letter of a1549, and next (in both masculine and feminine forms) in an influential letter of 1552, which was quickly translated into several languages; compare post-classical Latin bonzius, Spanish bonzo, Italian bonzo (all 1553 in plural forms). Compare also Middle French, French bonze (1570), and Dutch bonze, bons (1661 in plural as †bonsien), German Bonze (1598 in plural as †Bonses), the latter two now chiefly in a transferred sense ‘influential person’. The European words may also have been influenced by Japanese bonsō, (also) bonzō (11th cent.; 1603 as bonzô in Vocabulario da Lingoa de Iapam, glossed as ‘common monk, without rank’), probably formed within Japanese < bon ordinary + a form of sou Buddhist priest (both elements < Middle Chinese). Perhaps compare further the rare Japanese †bonsō, kind of Buddhist monk (10th cent.), Indian monk (14th cent.), apparently < bon Brahman + a form of sou.