Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One of the descendants of those Persians who settled in India about the end of the seventh and the beginning of the eighth century in order to escape Mohammedan persecution, and who still retain their ancient religion, now called Zoroastrianism. See Gueber.
  • Of or relating to the Parsees or their doctrines or customs.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • proper noun One of the adherents of the Zoroastrian or ancient Persian religion, descended from Persian refugees settled in India, and now found in western India; a fire worshiper; a Gheber.
  • proper noun The Iranian dialect of much of the religious literature of the Parsees.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Alternative spelling of Parsi.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a member of a monotheistic sect of Zoroastrian origin; descended from the Persians; now found in western India

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The Parsee is the only sect holding religious tenets strange enough to stamp them as "peculiar people" who amount to much in the material affairs of life.

    East of Suez Ceylon, India, China and Japan Frederic Courtland Penfield 1888

  • It remained for Anquetil Duperron, a young Frenchman, a Persian scholar, to translate the Zend Avesta, which contains the teachings of Zoroaster, and may be called the Parsee bible.

    Modern India William Eleroy Curtis 1880

  • "Parsee," said he to the guide, "you have been serviceable and devoted.

    Around the World in Eighty Days 1873

  • Deepa Mehta's films also peer into pre-modern women's enclaves with an eye on the ways and means that religious constraints--in this case Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Parsee restraints--have historically reinforced women's strength and resilience despite their enforced abjection--characteristics that men rarely emphasize in their depictions and accounts of women's homosocieties.

    G. Roger Denson: XX Chromosocial: Women Artists Cross The Homosocial Divide G. Roger Denson 2011

  • Deepa Mehta's films also peer into pre-modern women's enclaves with an eye on the ways and means that religious constraints--in this case Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Parsee restraints--have historically reinforced women's strength and resilience despite their enforced abjection--characteristics that men rarely emphasize in their depictions and accounts of women's homosocieties.

    G. Roger Denson: XX Chromosocial: Women Artists Cross The Homosocial Divide G. Roger Denson 2011

  • My father learned this unique Parsee also spelled Parsi Indian dish while serving in the British Royal Navy as the dentist on the aircraft carrier HMS Centaur.

    Father's Day contest brims with memories, recipes 2011

  • The Christian, Hindu, Sikh and Parsee communities have been second-class citizens since the death of Jinnah; and the situation is getting worse: acts of violence committed with impunity, rape and forced conversions of girls, false blasphemy accusations followed by lynchings, discrimination by the police and justice system, imposition of jizya (tax on non-muslims) by islamist organisations.

    Wonk Room » Moving Beyond A Transactional U.S.-Pakistan Partnership 2009

  • My father learned this unique Parsee also spelled Parsi Indian dish while serving in the British Royal Navy as the dentist on the aircraft carrier HMS Centaur.

    Father's Day contest brims with memories, recipes 2011

  • Dinshah, of Parsee descent, infused veganism with the Jain and Buddhist doctrine of ahimsa - (non violence to all living creatures).

    Origins of Modern Veganism Steve Carper 2008

  • Having grown up as a Parsee in Karachi where women can walk unrebuked with a duppatta over their heads, she thought for the very first time, "Bloody hell -- this country is being Talibanized '"

    Betwa Sharma: Asking Pakistanis, When? 2009

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