zoisite, n.

zoisite
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoisite_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1921; not fully revised

# zoisitenoun

## Earlier version

- zoisite in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zoisite mean?

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

#### Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

### How common is the noun zoisite?

About 0.04occurrences per million words in modern written English

1800 | 0.0066
1810 | 0.0058
1820 | 0.0053
1830 | 0.0047
1840 | 0.0064
1850 | 0.01
1860 | 0.016
1870 | 0.027
1880 | 0.043
1890 | 0.051
1900 | 0.066
1910 | 0.08
1920 | 0.095
1930 | 0.099
1940 | 0.095
1950 | 0.085
1960 | 0.08
1970 | 0.066
1980 | 0.053
1990 | 0.038
2000 | 0.03
2010 | 0.023

### How is the noun zoisite pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɔɪsʌɪt/
ZOY-sight

#### U.S. English

/ˈzɔɪˌsaɪt/
ZOY-sight

### Where does the noun zoisite come from?

Earliest known use

1800s

The earliest known use of the noun zoisite is in the 1800s.

OED's earliest evidence for zoisite is from 1805, in the writing of Robert Jameson, geologist and natural historian.

zoisite is a borrowing from German.

Etymons: German zoisit.

### Nearby entries

1. zoid, n. 1856–
2. zoid, adj. 1864–
3. zoidiophilous, adj. 1872–
4. zoidogamous, adj. 1899–
5. Zoilean, adj. 1846–
6. Zoilism, n. 1609–
7. Zoilist, n. 1594–
8. Zoilitical, adj. 1665
9. Zoilous, adj. 1577–
10. Zoilus, n. 1565–
11. zoisite, n.1805–
12. zoism, n. 1900–
13. zoist, n. 1843–
14. zoistic, adj. 1849–
15. zoite, n. 1963–
16. -zoite, comb. form
17. zol, n. 1946–
18. Zolaesque, adj. 1886–
19. Zolaism, n. 1882–
20. Zolaist, n. 1886–
21. Zolaize, v. 1886–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from German.
Etymon: German zoisit.
< German zoisit, named by Werner after Baron von Zois, the discoverer.

## Meaning & use

Mineralogy.

1. 1805–
   A native silicate of alumina and lime, occurring in orthorhombic prismatic crystals, of various colours, white, green, or red.
   1. 1805
      R. Jameson, System of Mineralogy vol. II. 597.
   2. 1843

      > Zoisite in fine crystals of a greyish brown or olive colour,..at Hollyhill, near Strabane, County Tyrone.

      J. E. Portlock, Report on Geology Londonderry 209
   minerals
   1. zoisite 1805–
      A native silicate of alumina and lime, occurring in orthorhombic prismatic crystals, of various colours, white, green, or red.
   2. thulite 1820–
      A rose-red variety of zoisite, n.
   3. unionite 1849–
      A form of very pure, white to yellowish-white zoisite.
   4. tanzanite 1968–
      A highly pleochroic violet-blue gemstone that is a variety of zoisite in which some of the aluminium is replaced by vanadium.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɔɪsʌɪt/
ZOY-sight

### U.S. English

/ˈzɔɪˌsaɪt/
ZOY-sight

####

##### 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

zoisite typically occurs about 0.04 times per million words in modern written English.

zoisite is in frequency band 3, which contains words occurring between 0.01 and 0.1 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 zoisite, n., 1800–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1800 | 0.0066
1810 | 0.0058
1820 | 0.0053
1830 | 0.0047
1840 | 0.0064
1850 | 0.01
1860 | 0.016
1870 | 0.027
1880 | 0.043
1890 | 0.051
1900 | 0.066
1910 | 0.08
1920 | 0.095
1930 | 0.099
1940 | 0.095
1950 | 0.085
1960 | 0.08
1970 | 0.066
1980 | 0.053
1990 | 0.038
2000 | 0.03
2010 | 0.023

zoisite, n. was first published in 1921; not fully revised.

zoisite, n. was last modified in July 2023.