zooning, n.

zooning
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zooning_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zooningnoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zooning mean?

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

This word is used in midland U.S. English and southern U.S. English.

### How common is the noun zooning?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1880 | 0.0015
1890 | 0.0013
1900 | 0.0012
1910 | 0.0011
1920 | 0.001
1930 | 0.0005
1940 | 0.0005
1950 | 0.0003
1960 | 0.0002
1970 | 0.0002
1980 | 0.0002
1990 | 0.0002
2000 | 0.0002
2010 | 0.0002

### How is the noun zooning pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzuːnɪŋ/
ZOO-ning

#### U.S. English

/ˈzunɪŋ/
ZOO-ning

### Where does the noun zooning come from?

Earliest known use

1880s

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

OED's earliest evidence for zooning is from 1885, in Idaho Avalanche.

zooning is formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: zoon v., ‑ing suffix1.

### Nearby entries

1. zoom shot, n. 1930–
2. zoomy, adj. 1931–
3. zoomythic, adj. 1889–
4. zoon, n. 1851–1905
5. zoon, v. 1880–
6. zoon, int. 1863–
7. -zoon, comb. form
8. zoonate, n. 1798–1857
9. zoonerythrin, n. 1882–
10. zoonic, adj. 1798–1853
11. zooning, n.1885–
12. Zoonist, adj. 1890–97
13. zoonite, n. 1838–
14. zoonitic, adj. 1860–91
15. zoonomic, adj. 1836–
16. zoonomical, adj. 1800–
17. zoonomist, n. 1800–99
18. zoonomy, n. 1800–
19. zoonosis, n. 1873–
20. zoonosologist, n. 1860–
21. zoonosology, n. 1845–

## Etymology

### Summary

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

Compare earlier zoon int.

## Meaning & use

Chiefly U.S. regional (southern and south Midland).

1. 1.
   1885–
   The action of making a buzzing, humming, or droning sound; the sound itself; an instance of this. Now rare.
   1. 1885

      > The whispering, tinkling, hissing, booming, muttering, ‘zooning’ around him are full of mysterious hints and suggestions.

      Idaho Avalanche 19 September 1/6
   2. 1888

      > The musicians..crooning out that nameless, tuneless tune, like the crurr-m of a locust, like the zooning of the wind on the beach.

      Daily Picayune (New Orleans) 5 August 9/4
   3. 1893

      > As rapid motion is necessary to zuning, a man, horse, locomotive, or almost anything that goes along swiftly, is said to zune.

      H. A. Shands, Some Peculiarities of Speech in Mississippi 69
   4. 1910

      > In the stillness the zooning of bees among the rocks came to their ears like distant music.

      D. Coolidge, Hidden Water xii. 232
   5. 1922

      > The zoonings and ploppings of blundering winged intruders.

      Outward Bound November 137/1
   U.S. English (midland) U.S. English (southern)
2. 2.
   1950–
   Chiefly in African American usage: a style of preaching characterized by the repetition of words and phrases with tonal variation, typically accompanied by responses from the congregation. Now somewhat rare and chiefly historical.
   1. 1950

      > The prayer maker is too full for any utterance which is not colored tonally by his emotions. This is called ‘Zooning’.

      W. L. James in Phylon vol. 16 i. 19
   2. 1956

      > The preacher may use the ‘zooning’ style (field-holler and cry) or the ‘gravy’ style (work-song grunt) or a combination of both.

      M. W. Stearns, Story of Jazz xii. 130
   3. 1977

      > The ‘cries’..may come relatively early in the [church] service and show the importance of tonal phenomena in the Black sermon. There is even a term for one such practice: zooning, ‘crying (a word or phrase) over and over with variations’.

      J. L. Dillard, Lexicon of Black English iii. 55
   4. 2000

      > I knew that ‘zooning’ referred to a particularly musical form of preaching.

      G. Hinson, Fire in my Bones 282
   phonetics African American English U.S. English (midland) U.S. English (southern) historical
   1. zooning 1950–
      Chiefly in African American usage: a style of preaching characterized by the repetition of words and phrases with tonal variation, typically…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzuːnɪŋ/
ZOO-ning

### U.S. English

/ˈzunɪŋ/
ZOO-ning

####

##### 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

See zoon v. and ‑ing suffix1.

## Frequency

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

zooning 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 zooning, n., 1880–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1880 | 0.0015
1890 | 0.0013
1900 | 0.0012
1910 | 0.0011
1920 | 0.001
1930 | 0.0005
1940 | 0.0005
1950 | 0.0003
1960 | 0.0002
1970 | 0.0002
1980 | 0.0002
1990 | 0.0002
2000 | 0.0002
2010 | 0.0002

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

zooning, n. was revised in June 2017.

zooning, n. was last modified in July 2023.