zoolatrous, adj.

zoolatrous
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoolatrous_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zoolatrousadjective

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zoolatrous mean?

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

### How common is the adjective zoolatrous?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1880 | 0.0006
1890 | 0.0005
1900 | 0.0004
1910 | 0.0005
1920 | 0.0005
1930 | 0.0004
1940 | 0.0004
1950 | 0.0002
1960 | 0.0002
1970 | 0.0002
1980 | 0.0002
1990 | 0.0001
2000 | 0.00009
2010 | 0.00009

### How is the adjective zoolatrous pronounced?

#### British English

/zuːˈɒlətrəs/
zoo-OL-uh-truhss
/zəʊˈɒlətrəs/
zoh-OL-uh-truhss

#### U.S. English

/zuˈɑlətrəs/
zoo-AH-luh-truhss
/zoʊˈɑlətrəs/
zoh-AH-luh-truhss

### Where does the adjective zoolatrous come from?

Earliest known use

1870s

The earliest known use of the adjective zoolatrous is in the 1870s.

OED's earliest evidence for zoolatrous is from 1876, in a dictionary by F. E. A. Gasc.

zoolatrous is formed within English, by compounding.

Etymons: zoo- comb. form, ‑latrous comb. form.

### Nearby entries

1. zoogyroscope, n. 1880–
2. zooid, n. 1851–
3. zooid, adj. 1849
4. zooidal, adj. 1858–
5. zooidogamous, adj. 1891–
6. zookeeper, n. 1886–
7. zookeeping, n. 1929–
8. Zookers, int. 1620–
9. Zooks, int. 1600–
10. zoolater, n. 1876–
11. zoolatrous, adj.1876–
12. zoolatry, n. 1784–
13. zoolite, n. 1768–
14. zoologer, n. 1663–
15. zoologic, adj. 1766–
16. zoological, adj. & n. 1686–
17. zoological garden, n. 1827–
18. zoologically, adv. 1799–
19. zoologico-, comb. form
20. zoologico-archaeologist, n. 1864
21. zoologist, n. 1663–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by compounding.
Etymons: zoo- comb. form, ‑latrous comb. form.
< zoo- comb. form + ‑latrous comb. form, after zoolatry n.

Compare French zoolâtrique (1834 or earlier).

## Meaning & use

1. 1876–
   Of, relating to, or practising zoolatry.
   1. 1876

      > Zoolâtrique, zoolatrous.

      F. E. A. Gasc, Dictionary French & English Language (new edition) 580/2
   2. 1898

      > Vestiges of zoölatrous worship.

      E. P. Evans, Evolutional Ethics i. 6
   3. 1913

      > Her primitive character..appears in the account of her marriages with animals, in which there is to be recognized the trace of the old zoölatrous period.

      C. H. Toy, Introd. Hist. Religion 331
   4. 1983

      > Perhaps no zoolatrous culture has accorded as much attention to birds that unquestionably were deities as the Egyptian.

      B. Mundkur, Cult Serpent 101
   5. 2011

      > There could be nothing more unnatural to Christianity than the..zoolatrous worship of a cat, pig or bull.

      A. Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos, Law & Ecology 160
   religion
   1. zoolatrous 1876–
      Of, relating to, or practising zoolatry.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zuːˈɒlətrəs/
zoo-OL-uh-truhss
/zəʊˈɒlətrəs/
zoh-OL-uh-truhss

### U.S. English

/zuˈɑlətrəs/
zoo-AH-luh-truhss
/zoʊˈɑlətrəs/
zoh-AH-luh-truhss

####

##### 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 zoo- comb. form and ‑latrous comb. form.

## Frequency

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

zoolatrous 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 zoolatrous, adj., 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 | 0.0006
1890 | 0.0005
1900 | 0.0004
1910 | 0.0005
1920 | 0.0005
1930 | 0.0004
1940 | 0.0004
1950 | 0.0002
1960 | 0.0002
1970 | 0.0002
1980 | 0.0002
1990 | 0.0001
2000 | 0.00009
2010 | 0.00009

Originally published as part of the entry for zoolatry, n.

zoolatrous, adj. was revised in June 2017.

zoolatrous, adj. was last modified in March 2024.