zoot suit, n.

zoot-suit
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoot-suit_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zoot suitnoun

## Earlier version

- zoot suit in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zoot suit mean?

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

zoot suit has developed meanings and uses in subjects including

costume (1940s) military (1940s)

### How common is the noun zoot suit?

About 0.06occurrences per million words in modern written English

1940 | 0.035
1950 | 0.036
1960 | 0.043
1970 | 0.049
1980 | 0.053
1990 | 0.058
2000 | 0.066
2010 | 0.072

### How is the noun zoot suit pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzuːt suːt/
ZOOT soot

#### U.S. English

/ˈzut ˌsut/
ZOOT soot

### Where does the noun zoot suit come from?

Earliest known use

1940s

The earliest known use of the noun zoot suit is in the 1940s.

OED's earliest evidence for zoot suit is from 1942, in the song Zoot Suit by R. Gilbert.

zoot suit is probably formed within English, by compounding.

Etymons: suit n.

### Nearby entries

1. zoothome, n. 1872–
2. zootic, adj. 1816–
3. zootokon, n. 1661
4. zootomic, adj. 1801–
5. zootomical, adj. 1799–
6. zootomically, adv. 1849–
7. zootomist, n. 1663–
8. zootomy, n. 1663–
9. zootoxin, n. 1906–
10. zootrophy, n. 1877–
11. zoot suit, n.1942–
12. zoot-suited, adj. 1942–
13. zoot-suiter, n. 1942–
14. zooty, adj. 1942–
15. zootype, n. 1883–
16. zootypic, adj. 1853–
17. zoowoman, n. 1930–
18. zooxanthella, n. 1882–
19. zooxanthellate, adj. & n. 1981–
20. zooxanthin, n. 1868–
21. zoozygosphere, n. 1880–

## Etymology

### Summary

Of uncertain origin. Probably formed within English, by compounding.
Etymon: suit n.
Origin uncertain.

Probably a reduplication (with variation of initial consonant) of suit n.; compare earlier killer-diller n.

Compare zoot n.…
Origin uncertain.

Probably a reduplication (with variation of initial consonant) of suit n.; compare earlier killer-diller n.

Compare zoot n.

### Notes

An alternative derivation is noted by R. S. Gold Jazz Lexicon (1964) 351–2 who records that ‘according to jazzman Zutty Singleton, the term [zoot] was New Orleans patois for “cute”’, which is said to have had some currency c1925–45, but no evidence is given to support this assertion. An interjection zoot, used to express encouragement shouted by fans to jive musicians as they perform, or (more generally) to express recognition, agreement, or satisfaction, is recorded in some U.S. slang dictionaries, e.g. H. Wentworth & S. B. Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang (ed. 2, 1975) 595/1, as having some limited currency among jazz fans c1935–40, but again without supporting evidence.

## Meaning & use

Originally U.S. slang.

1. 1.
   1942–
   A man’s suit of an exaggerated style, characterized by a long, loose jacket with padded shoulders and high-waisted tapering trousers.
   The zoot suit was popular in the United States in the 1940s, esp. among African American, Hispanic, and Italian communities.
   1. 1942

      > I want a Zoot Suit with a reat pleat, with a drape shape.

      R. Gilbert & B. O'Brien, Zoot Suit (song) 3
   2. 1951

      > Next thing we know, one of these ‘hepcats’ will probably trade his kimono for a zuit suit.

      Pacific Stars & Stripes (Tokyo) 29 May 2/4
   3. 1969

      > Chavez became a pachuco, affecting a zoot suit with pegged pants.

      Time 14 July 16/2
   4. 1984

      > Baggy zoot suits and skinhead styles have revived the adult market.

      Guardian 5 October 3/1
   5. 2004

      > The audience was largely groovers in zoot suits with pencil moustaches.

      Mojo June 84/2
   costume U.S. English colloquial and slang
   1. zoot 1942–
      = zoot suit, n. 1.
   2. zoot suit 1942–
      A man’s suit of an exaggerated style, characterized by a long, loose jacket with padded shoulders and high-waisted tapering trousers.
   View in Historical Thesaurus
2. 2.
   1942–
   Chiefly Military slang. Any of various kinds of clothing for the whole body, as a set of overalls, a flying suit, etc.
   1. 1942

      > Wearing ‘zoot’ suits, the name given newly perfected sniper suits.

      Evening Democrat (Fort Madison, Iowa) 17 July 5/6
   2. 1945

      > Zoot suit (which, of course, came originally from U.S. jive slang) for the crude civilian clothes given to discharged servicemen.

      S. J. Baker, Australian Language 158
   3. 1952

      > The warm ‘tank suits’..were soon known to the troops as ‘zoot suits’, and were aptly described as a ‘mass of zip-fasteners joined together by windproof and waterproof material’.

      D. Clarke, Eleventh at War xvii. 416
   4. 1984

      > Her hands grew sweaty on the stick, and she wiped first one, then the other, on the baggy pants of her zoot suit.

      J. Dailey, Silver Wings, Santiago Blue iv. 70
   5. 2010

      > The WASPs spent much of their training time wearing ‘zoot suits’—army issue mechanics' overalls.

      Indiana (Pennsylvania) Gazette 6 June 8/3
   costume military U.S. English colloquial and slang
   1. zoot suit 1942–
      Chiefly Military slang. Any of various kinds of clothing for the whole body, as a set of overalls, a flying suit, etc.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzuːt suːt/
ZOOT soot

### U.S. English

/ˈzut ˌsut/
ZOOT soot

####

##### 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. 1900s–
   zoot suit, zuit suit

## Frequency

zoot suit typically occurs about 0.06 times per million words in modern written English.

zoot suit 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 zoot suit, n., 1940–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1940 | 0.035
1950 | 0.036
1960 | 0.043
1970 | 0.049
1980 | 0.053
1990 | 0.058
2000 | 0.066
2010 | 0.072

### Frequency of zoot suit, n., 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 | 0.0097
2018 | 0.0097
2019 | 0.0096
2020 | 0.011
2021 | 0.01
2022 | 0.0099
2023 | 0.0099
2024 | 0.01

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. zoot, n. 1942–
   = zoot suit, n. 1.

1. zooty, adj. 1942–
   That is in the style of a zoot suit (zoot suit, n. 1).

zoot suit, n. was revised in June 2017.

zoot suit, n. was last modified in December 2023.