c.1275, "a native or resident of Nazareth" town in Lower Galilee, childhood home of Jesus, from Heb. Natzerath. In Talmudic Heb. notzri, lit. "of Nazareth," meant "a Christian;" likewise Arabic Nasrani (pl. Nasara). In Christian use, however, it can be a nickname for Jesus, or refer to an early Jewish Christian sect, or, in modern use, to a member of the Church of the Nazarene, a U.S.-based Protestant denomination (1898 in this sense).
[naz-uh-reen, naz-uh-reen] 
