Chapter PORTIA to PRA of P by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

Burma have had little elucidation. On the word in question, Professor H. H. Wilson has kindly favoured me with a note: ‘Phrá is no doubt a corruption of the Sanskrit Prabhu, a Lord or Master; the h of the aspirate bh is often retained alone, leaving Prahu which becomes Práh or Phra.”—Sir H. Yule, Mission to Ava, 61.

1855.—“All these readings (of documents at the Court) were intoned in a high recitative, strongly resembling that used in the English cathedral service. And the long-drawn Phyá-á-á-á! (My Lord), which terminated each reading, added to the resemblance, as it came in exactly like the Amen of the Liturgy.”—Ibid. 88.

1859.—“The word Phra, which so frequently occurs in this work, here appears for the first time; I have to remark that it is probably derived from, or of common origin with, the Pharaoh of antiquity. It is given in the Siamese dictionaries as synonymous with God, ruler, priest, and teacher. It is in fact the word by which sovereignty and sanctity are associated in the popular mind.”—Bowring, Kingdom and People of Siam, [i. 35].

1863.—“The title of the First King (of Siam) is Phra-Chom-Klao-Yu-Hua and spoken as Phra Phutthi-Chao-Yu-Hua. … His Majesty’s nose is styled in the Pali form Phra-Nasa. … The Siamese term the (Catholic) missionaries, the Preachers of the Phra-Chao Phu-Sang, i.e. of God the Creator, or the Divine Lord Builder. … The Catholic missionaries express ‘God’ by Phra-Phutthi- Chao … and they explain the Eucharist as Phra-Phutthi-Kaya (Kaya = ‘Body’).”—Bastian, Reise, iii. 109, and 114–115.

1870.—“The most excellent Para, brilliant in his glory, free from all ignorance, beholding Nibbana the end of the migration of the soul, lighted the lamp of the law of the Word.”—Rogers, Buddhagosha’s Parables, tr. from the Burmese, page 1.

1871.—“Phra is a Siamese word applied to all that is worthy of the highest respect, that is, everything connected with religion and royalty. It may be translated as ‘holy.’ The Siamese letters p—h—r commonly represent the Sanskrit v—r. I therefore presume the word to be derived from the Sanskrit ‘vri’—‘to choose, or to be chosen,’ and ‘vara—better, best, excellent,’ the root of [Greek Text] aristoV.”—Alabaster, The Wheel of the Law, 164.

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