zoogyroscope, n.

zoogyroscope
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoogyroscope_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zoogyroscopenoun

## Earlier version

- zoogyroscope in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zoogyroscope mean?

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

### How common is the noun zoogyroscope?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1880 | 0.00005
1890 | 0.00009
1900 | 0.0001
1910 | 0.0001
1920 | 0.0001
1930 | 0.0001
1940 | 0.0002
1950 | 0.0002
1960 | 0.0003
1970 | 0.0003
1980 | 0.0003
1990 | 0.0004
2000 | 0.0004
2010 | 0.0004

### How is the noun zoogyroscope pronounced?

#### British English

/ˌzuː(ə)ˈdʒʌɪrəskəʊp/
zoo-uh-JIGH-ruh-skohp
/ˌzəʊəˈdʒʌɪrəskəʊp/
zoh-uh-JIGH-ruh-skohp

#### U.S. English

/ˌzu(ə)ˈdʒaɪrəˌskoʊp/
zoo-uh-JIGH-ruh-skohp
/ˌzoʊəˈdʒaɪrəˌskoʊp/
zoh-uh-JIGH-ruh-skohp

### Where does the noun zoogyroscope come from?

Earliest known use

1880s

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

OED's earliest evidence for zoogyroscope is from 1880, in Daily Evening Bulletin (San Francisco).

zoogyroscope is formed within English, by compounding.

Etymons: zoo- comb. form, gyroscope n.

### Nearby entries

1. zoogonic, adj. 1787–
2. zoogonidium, n. 1857–
3. zoogony, n. 1675–
4. zoograph, n. 1623
5. zoographer, n. 1646–
6. zoographic, adj. 1741–
7. zoographical, adj. 1651–
8. zoographically, adv. 1835–
9. zoographist, n. 1749–1874
10. zoography, n. 1593–
11. zoogyroscope, n.1880–
12. zooid, n. 1851–
13. zooid, adj. 1849
14. zooidal, adj. 1858–
15. zooidogamous, adj. 1891–
16. zookeeper, n. 1886–
17. zookeeping, n. 1929–
18. Zookers, int. 1620–
19. Zooks, int. 1600–
20. zoolater, n. 1876–
21. zoolatrous, adj. 1876–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by compounding.
< zoo- comb. form + gyroscope n.…
< zoo- comb. form + gyroscope n.

### Notes

Apparently coined by E. J. Muybridge (1830–1904), English photographer.

## Meaning & use

Now historical.

1. 1880–
   A modified form of zoetrope used to project a series of photographic images of animals or other subjects in order to display their movement; cf. zoopraxiscope n.
   1. 1880

      > The various movements of horses, dogs, oxen, deer, etc.: and of men running, leaping, wrestling, turning somersaults, etc. will be exhibited by means of the oxyhydrogen light, and the Zoogyroscope, in apparent actual motion, on the screen.

      Daily Evening Bulletin (San Francisco) 3 May 4/5
   2. 1975

      > Zoogyroscope images were attained by means of sequential transparent images placed around the rim of rotating glass disks and projected rapidly in succession onto a screen, reconstituting living movement.

      Calif. Hist. Quarterly vol. 54 125
   3. 1999

      > At the turn of the 19th century, cinema emerged from a host of wannabe technologies, including the zoogyroscope, electro-tachyscope, biophantascope and vitamotograph.

      New Scientist 23 October 42/1
   photography historical
   1. graphoscope 1879–
      An apparatus containing a magnifying lens arranged for viewing engravings, photographs, etc.
   2. zoogyroscope 1880–
      A modified form of zoetrope used to project a series of photographic images of animals or other subjects in order to display their movement; cf. zoo…
   3. zoopraxinoscope 1889–
      A modified form of zoetrope used to project a series of photographic images of animals or other subjects in order to display their movement; = zoogyro…
   4. heliochromoscope 1892–
      A device for superposing three specially prepared photographs of an object so as to produce an image in the natural colours.
   5. photochromoscope 1893–
      A device for viewing a set of three monochrome photographs stereoscopically through red, green, and blue filters so that they are seen as a…
   6. kromskop 1897–
      A viewer for the three positives of a chromogram, enabling them to be visually combined and seen as a single coloured picture. Frequently attributive…
   7. light table 1931–
      A horizontal or tilted surface of translucent glass or plastic with a light behind it, used for viewing transparencies or photographic negatives, or…
   8. viewer 1934–
      An optical device used for viewing images recorded on a particular medium, esp. those recorded on microfilm.
   9. slide viewer 1960–
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˌzuː(ə)ˈdʒʌɪrəskəʊp/
zoo-uh-JIGH-ruh-skohp
/ˌzəʊəˈdʒʌɪrəskəʊp/
zoh-uh-JIGH-ruh-skohp

### U.S. English

/ˌzu(ə)ˈdʒaɪrəˌskoʊp/
zoo-uh-JIGH-ruh-skohp
/ˌzoʊəˈdʒaɪrəˌskoʊp/
zoh-uh-JIGH-ruh-skohp

####

##### 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

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

zoogyroscope 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 zoogyroscope, 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 | 0.00005
1890 | 0.00009
1900 | 0.0001
1910 | 0.0001
1920 | 0.0001
1930 | 0.0001
1940 | 0.0002
1950 | 0.0002
1960 | 0.0003
1970 | 0.0003
1980 | 0.0003
1990 | 0.0004
2000 | 0.0004
2010 | 0.0004

zoogyroscope, n. was revised in June 2017.

zoogyroscope, n. was last modified in June 2025.