Zeus, n.²

zeus
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zeus_n2%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# Zeusnoun2

## Factsheet

### What does the noun Zeus mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun Zeus. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

### How common is the noun Zeus?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1750 | 0.0044
1760 | 0.0045
1770 | 0.0046
1780 | 0.0047
1790 | 0.005
1800 | 0.0051
1810 | 0.0054
1820 | 0.0055
1830 | 0.0057
1840 | 0.0059
1850 | 0.0061
1860 | 0.0063
1870 | 0.0067
1880 | 0.0069
1890 | 0.0072
1900 | 0.0076
1910 | 0.0078
1920 | 0.0082
1930 | 0.0084
1940 | 0.0086
1950 | 0.0087
1960 | 0.009
1970 | 0.0092
1980 | 0.0094
1990 | 0.0095
2000 | 0.0096
2010 | 0.0097

### How is the noun Zeus pronounced?

#### British English

/z(j)uːs/
zyooss

#### U.S. English

/zus/
zooss

### Where does the noun Zeus come from?

Earliest known use

early 1600s

The earliest known use of the noun Zeus is in the early 1600s.

OED's earliest evidence for Zeus is from 1601, in a translation by Philemon Holland, translator.

Zeus is a borrowing from Latin.

Etymons: Latin zaeus, zēus.

### Nearby entries

1. zeuglodontoid, adj. & n. 1891
2. zeugma, n. c1450–
3. zeugmatic, adj. 1851–
4. zeugmatical, adj. 1610–
5. zeugmatically, adv. 1616–
6. zeugmatogram, n. 1973–
7. zeugmatographic, adj. 1973–
8. zeugmatography, n. 1973–
9. zeunerite, n. 1873–
10. Zeus, n.¹ 1587–
11. Zeus, n.²1601–
12. Zeus-like, adj. & adv. 1850–
13. Zeuxian, adj. 1635–
14. Zeuxis, n. 1577–
15. Zeuxis-like, adj. 1665–
16. zeuxite, n. 1836–
17. zeze, n. 1860–
18. Zhdanovism, n. 1958–
19. Zhdanovist, adj. 1966–
20. Zhdanovite, adj. 1957–
21. zho, n. 1841–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Latin.
Etymons: Latin zaeus, zēus.
< classical Latin zaeus (also zēus) (Pliny) < Byzantine Greek ζαιός (recorded in a glossary, preserving earlier material; compare Hellenistic Greek ζαζαῖος), of unknown origin…
< classical Latin zaeus (also zēus) (Pliny) < Byzantine Greek ζαιός (recorded in a glossary, preserving earlier material; compare Hellenistic Greek ζαζαῖος), of unknown origin.

### Notes

The name of the fish has been associated with the name of the ancient Greek god Zeus (see Zeus n.1) from at least the 16th cent.

## Meaning & use

1. 1601–
   Formerly: the John Dory fish, Zeus faber (family Zeidae); (also) any of several other fishes formerly placed in the genus Zeus (now rare or obsolete). In later use: the genus Zeus itself.
   1. [1538

      > Zeus, a fysshe taken about Calys [sc. Cádiz] in Spain, whiche is blacke, but he is very delicate.

      T. Elyot, Dictionary]
   2. 1601

      > At Gades in Spaine, the Doree or Goldfish, called Zeus [Latin zaeus] and Faber.

      P. Holland, translation of Pliny, Historie of World vol. I. ix. xviii. 246
   3. 1706

      > Zeüs, a Fish taken about Cadiz.., of a black Colour and very delicate.

      Phillips's New World of Words (new edition)
   4. 1752

      > The red Zeus, with an even tail.

      J. Hill, General Natural History vol. III. 274
   5. 1854

      > His own fish Zeus, the dory [was offered] to Jupiter.

      C. D. Badham, Prose Halieutics 48
   6. 1907

      > The best-known genus is Zeus, which is a group of shore-fishes of the waters of Asia and Europe.

      D. S. Jordan, Fishes xxix. 464
   7. 2006

      > Zeus consists of two extant and three fossil species.

      Cybium vol. 30 99
   fish
   1. Zeus 1601–
      Formerly: the John Dory fish, Zeus faber (family Zeidae); (also) any of several other fishes formerly placed in the genus Zeus (now rare or obsolete)…
   2. Zeus 1721–
      allusively A paramount ruling force or being in the universe; a person who displays characteristics usually associated with Zeus, such as supreme…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/z(j)uːs/
zyooss

### U.S. English

/zus/
zooss

####

##### 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

## Forms

### Variant forms

1. 1500s–
   zeus
2. 1700s
   zeüs

## Frequency

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

Zeus is in frequency band 2, which contains words occurring between 0.001 and 0.01 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 Zeus, n.², 1750–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1750 | 0.0044
1760 | 0.0045
1770 | 0.0046
1780 | 0.0047
1790 | 0.005
1800 | 0.0051
1810 | 0.0054
1820 | 0.0055
1830 | 0.0057
1840 | 0.0059
1850 | 0.0061
1860 | 0.0063
1870 | 0.0067
1880 | 0.0069
1890 | 0.0072
1900 | 0.0076
1910 | 0.0078
1920 | 0.0082
1930 | 0.0084
1940 | 0.0086
1950 | 0.0087
1960 | 0.009
1970 | 0.0092
1980 | 0.0094
1990 | 0.0095
2000 | 0.0096
2010 | 0.0097

### Frequency of Zeus, n.², 2017–2024

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Modern frequency series are derived from a corpus of 20 billion words, covering the period from 2017 to the present. The corpus is mainly compiled from online news sources, and covers all major varieties of World English.

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 corpus.

Period | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
2017 | 0.044
2018 | 0.042
2019 | 0.042
2020 | 0.052
2021 | 0.054
2022 | 0.058
2023 | 0.064
2024 | 0.071

Originally published as part of the entry for Zeus, n.¹

Zeus, n.² was revised in June 2018.

Zeus, n.² was last modified in June 2025.