zizzing, n.

zizzing
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zizzing_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# zizzingnoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zizzing mean?

There are two meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun zizzing. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

### How common is the noun zizzing?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1890 | 0.0005
1900 | 0.0004
1910 | 0.0005
1920 | 0.0005
1930 | 0.0006
1940 | 0.0006
1950 | 0.0006
1960 | 0.0005
1970 | 0.0006
1980 | 0.0006
1990 | 0.0006
2000 | 0.0006
2010 | 0.0007

### How is the noun zizzing pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɪzɪŋ/
ZIZ-ing

#### U.S. English

/ˈzɪzɪŋ/
ZIZ-ing

### Where does the noun zizzing come from?

Earliest known use

1880s

The earliest known use of the noun zizzing is in the 1880s.

OED's earliest evidence for zizzing is from 1884, in Atlanta (Georgia) Constitution.

zizzing is formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: zizz v., ‑ing suffix1.

### Nearby entries

1. ziti, n. 1845–
2. zitty, adj. 1971–
3. Ziv, n. a1382–
4. zizania, n. 1526–
5. zizany, n. a1400–1803
6. zizel, n. 1775–
7. zizypha, n. 1546–1775
8. zizyphus, n.?1440–
9. zizz, v. 1883–
10. zizz, int. & n. 1824–
11. zizzing, n.1884–
12. zizzing, adj. 1919–
13. zizzy, adj. 1843–
14. Zlid, n. 1616–1785
15. Z'life, n. 1689
16. Z line, n. 1916–
17. Z-list, n. & adj. 1979–
18. Z-lister, n. 1999–
19. zloty, n. 1915–
20. Zn, n. 1814–
21. -zoa, comb. form

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by derivation.
< zizz v. + ‑ing suffix1.

## Meaning & use

1. 1.
   1884–
   A buzzing or whizzing sound; movement or activity accompanied by such a sound. Also figurative.
   1. 1884

      > But the zizzing soon settled down, and when the popular champagne was placed to the lips of the plumed knight again, it was found to be stale and flat.

      Atlanta (Georgia) Constitution 17 July 1/1
   2. 1951

      > The flies on the window-pane woke up and started to rage together with a venomous zizzing.

      J. Strachey, Man on Pier 37
   3. 2001

      > The zizzing of sewing ceased as 100 workers herded toward a cabinet to retrieve lunch sacks.

      Daily News (New York) (Nexis) 8 July 6
   1. buzzing 1495–
      A sibilant humming.
   2. beming a1522
      Trumpeting; transferred noisy buzzing.
   3. fuzzing 1676
   4. bumble 1834–
      A buzzing or humming noise. Cf. bumbling, n.¹
   5. Z-ing 1852–
      Used (usually repeated) to represent a buzzing sound; also conventionally representing the sound of snoring. Hence Z-ing n., and as v. intransitive…
   6. zizz 1860–
      A buzzing or whizzing sound, such as that made by the rapid motion of a wheel; (also) a movement accompanied by such a sound.
   7. zizzing 1884–
      A buzzing or whizzing sound; movement or activity accompanied by such a sound. Also figurative.
   8. zinging 1921–
      A sharp, high-pitched ringing, buzzing, or whining sound.
   9. tizziness 1976–
   View in Historical Thesaurus
2. 2.
   1942–
   colloquial (chiefly British). The action of having a short sleep or nap; sleeping. Cf. zizz v. 2.
   1. 1942

      > Sleeping is ‘zizzing’ whether it's on the job or in the hammock.

      Gen 1 September 13/1
   2. 1987

      > You can also..fit in a fair amount of staring out the window thinking about nothing in particular, zizzing, and, at peak rush-hour periods, unarmed combat.

      Punch 11 March 70/2
   British English colloquial and slang
   1. napping Old English–
      The action of taking a nap; sleeping; (formerly also) †drowsiness (obsolete). Also figurative.
   2. dozing 1692–
      The action of sleeping drowsily.
   3. snoozing 1811–
      The fact of dozing or sleeping. Also attributive.
   4. catnapping 1845–
      The habit or practice of taking brief naps. Cf. catnap, n.
   5. winking 1862
      The taking of ‘forty winks’.
   6. zizzing 1942–
      colloquial (chiefly British). The action of having a short sleep or nap; sleeping. Cf. zizz, v. 2.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɪzɪŋ/
ZIZ-ing

### U.S. English

/ˈzɪzɪŋ/
ZIZ-ing

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- ɬrhingyll
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛtl/ but /ˈpɛtl̩i/.

##### Vowels

- iːfleece
- ihappy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- atrap, bath
- ɑːstart, palm, bath
- ɒlot
- ɔːthought, force
- ʌstrut
- ʊfoot
- uːgoose
- əletter
- əːnurse
- ɪənear
- ɛːsquare
- ʊəcure
- eɪface
- ʌɪpride
- aʊmouth
- əʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ãgratin
- ɒ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)

##### Other symbols

- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye*
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

* /d/ also represents a 'tapped' /t/ as in

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛd(ə)l/ but /ˈpɛdl̩i/.

##### Vowels

- ifleece, happy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- ætrap, bath
- ɑlot, palm, cloth, thought
- ɑrstart
- ɔcloth, thought
- ɔrnorth, force
- ʊfoot
- ugoose
- əstrut, comma
- ərnurse, letter
- ɪ(ə)rnear
- ɛ(ə)rsquare
- ʊ(ə)rcure
- eɪface
- aɪpride
- aʊmouth
- oʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ɑ̃gratin
- æ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)

##### Other symbols

- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

Simple text respell breaks words into syllables, separated by a hyphen. The syllable which carries the primary stress is written in capital letters. This key covers both British and U.S. English Simple Text Respell.

##### Consonants

b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w and z have their standard English values

- gguy
- jjay
- yyore
- chchore
- khloch
- shshore
- ththaw
- dhthee
- zhbeige

##### Vowels

- atrap
- ahpalm
- airsquare
- arstart
- arrcarry (British only)
- awthought
- ayface
- a(ng)gratin
- edress
- eefleece
- eerdeer
- errmerry
- ikit
- ighpride
- irrmirror
- olot (British only)
- ohgoat
- oogoose
- oorcure
- orforce
- orrsorry (British only)
- owmouth
- oyvoice
- o(ng)salon
- ustrut
- uhletter
- urnurse
- urrhurry
- uufoot

## Frequency

zizzing typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zizzing is in frequency band 1, which contains words occurring fewer than 0.001 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands

Frequency data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.

### Frequency of zizzing, n., 1890–2010

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Historical frequency series are derived from Google Books Ngrams (version 2), a data set based on the Google Books corpus of several million books printed in English between 1500 and 2010.

The overall frequency for a given word is calculated by summing frequencies for the main form of the word, any plural or inflected forms, and any major spelling variations.

For sets of homographs (distinct entries that share the same word-form, e.g. mole, n.¹, mole, n.², mole, n.³, etc.), we have estimated the frequency of each homograph entry as a fraction of the total Ngrams frequency for the word-form. This may result in inaccuracies.

Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the Google Books corpus.

Decade | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
1890 | 0.0005
1900 | 0.0004
1910 | 0.0005
1920 | 0.0005
1930 | 0.0006
1940 | 0.0006
1950 | 0.0006
1960 | 0.0005
1970 | 0.0006
1980 | 0.0006
1990 | 0.0006
2000 | 0.0006
2010 | 0.0007

Originally published as part of the entry for zizz, v.

zizzing, n. was revised in March 2021.

zizzing, n. was last modified in July 2023.