zoomy, adj.

zoomy
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoomy_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zoomyadjective

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zoomy mean?

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

### How common is the adjective zoomy?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1940 | 0.0003
1950 | 0.0003
1960 | 0.0004
1970 | 0.0005
1980 | 0.0007
1990 | 0.0007
2000 | 0.0009
2010 | 0.0009

### How is the adjective zoomy pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzuːmi/
ZOO-mee

#### U.S. English

/ˈzumi/
ZOO-mee

### Where does the adjective zoomy come from?

Earliest known use

1930s

The earliest known use of the adjective zoomy is in the 1930s.

OED's earliest evidence for zoomy is from 1931, in Flying Magazine.

zoomy is formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: zoom n., zoom int., ‑y suffix1.

### Nearby entries

1. zooming, n. 1892–
2. zooming, adj. 1904–
3. zoom lens, n. 1932–
4. zoomorph, n. 1883–
5. zoomorphic, adj. 1849–
6. zoomorphism, n. 1822–
7. zoomorphize, v. 1940–
8. zoomorphizing, n. 1895–
9. zoomorphosed, adj. 1955–
10. zoom shot, n. 1930–
11. zoomy, adj.1931–
12. zoomythic, adj. 1889–
13. zoon, n. 1851–1905
14. zoon, v. 1880–
15. zoon, int. 1863–
16. -zoon, comb. form
17. zoonate, n. 1798–1857
18. zoonerythrin, n. 1882–
19. zoonic, adj. 1798–1853
20. zooning, n. 1885–
21. Zoonist, adj. 1890–97

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by derivation.
Etymons: zoom n., zoom int., ‑y suffix1.
< either zoom n. or zoom int. + ‑y suffix1.

Compare earlier zoom v.1

## Meaning & use

1. 1931–
   Esp. of a vehicle, its engine, etc.: that zooms; capable of travelling or accelerating quickly; (hence) impressively large, fast, or powerful; flashy.
   1. 1931

      > Your first airplane..Zoomy punch at low cost.

      Flying Magazine November
   2. 1969

      > The Herald 13/60..has a zoomy 1296cc engine, delivering 61 bhp.

      Daily Telegraph 17 January (Colour Supplement) 6 (advertisement)
   3. 1985

      > The car is right on the money... It's not super space-age or zoomy. But I think what it's supposed to do it does well.

      New York Times 13 October v. 13/1
   4. 1989

      > More power, closer gears, firmer suspension, bigger tires, zoomier looks. How does it work?

      Motor Trend March 121/3
   5. 1991

      > Since Forward Look, automotive fashions have come and gone in a quest for zoomy zeitgeist and a median demographic style.

      Esquire January 46/1
   6. 2014

      > Yes, an MG is a sports car, but it's a really, really ancient one; not zoomy or souped up.

      V. Bergin, Rain xxv. 332
   motoring
   1. zoomy 1931–
      Esp. of a vehicle, its engine, etc.: that zooms; capable of travelling or accelerating quickly; (hence) impressively large, fast, or powerful; flashy.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzuːmi/
ZOO-mee

### U.S. English

/ˈzumi/
ZOO-mee

####

##### 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

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

zoomy 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 zoomy, adj., 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 | 0.0003
1950 | 0.0003
1960 | 0.0004
1970 | 0.0005
1980 | 0.0007
1990 | 0.0007
2000 | 0.0009
2010 | 0.0009

zoomy, adj. was revised in June 2017.

zoomy, adj. was last modified in July 2023.