zeugmaticadjective
Factsheet
What does the adjective zeugmatic mean?
There is one meaning in OED's entry for the adjective zeugmatic. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.
How common is the adjective zeugmatic?
| 1860 | 0.0001 |
| 1870 | 0.0001 |
| 1880 | 0.0003 |
| 1890 | 0.0003 |
| 1900 | 0.0002 |
| 1910 | 0.0002 |
| 1920 | 0.0003 |
| 1930 | 0.0005 |
| 1940 | 0.0007 |
| 1950 | 0.0008 |
| 1960 | 0.0011 |
| 1970 | 0.0013 |
| 1980 | 0.0016 |
| 1990 | 0.0018 |
| 2000 | 0.0019 |
| 2010 | 0.0019 |
How is the adjective zeugmatic pronounced?
British English
U.S. English
Where does the adjective zeugmatic come from?
Earliest known use
1850s
The earliest known use of the adjective zeugmatic is in the 1850s.
OED's earliest evidence for zeugmatic is from 1851.
zeugmatic is a borrowing from Greek, combined with an English element; originally modelled on a German lexical item.
Etymons: Greek ζευγματ-, ζεῦγμα, ‑ic suffix.
Nearby entries
- Zetetical Society, n.1881–
- zetetics, n.1843–
- Zetland, n.1577–
- Zetlander, n.1614–
- Zetlandic, adj.1701–
- zetta-, comb. form
- Zeuglodon, n.1839–
- zeuglodont, n. & adj.1850–
- zeuglodontoid, adj. & n.1891
- zeugma, n.c1450–
- zeugmatic, adj.1851–
- zeugmatical, adj.1610–
- zeugmatically, adv.1616–
- zeugmatogram, n.1973–
- zeugmatographic, adj.1973–
- zeugmatography, n.1973–
- zeunerite, n.1873–
- Zeus, n.¹1587–
- Zeus, n.²1601–
- Zeus-like, adj. & adv.1850–
- Zeuxian, adj.1635–
Etymology
Summary
Notes
Meaning & use
- 1851–Characterized by or involving zeugma. Cf. zeugmatical adj.
- 1851
‘And yet,’ continues he, ‘it cannot be called a Zeugmatic connection [German zeugmatische Verbindung].’
translation of G. C. A. von Harless in translation of H. Olshausen, Biblical Comm. Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, & Thessalonians (Eph. i. 10) 142 - 1857
A zeugmatic construction of the accus. with both verbs.
C. J. Ellicott, Comm. Coloss. ii. 5 - 1910
The verb must be understood to be used in a somewhat zeugmatic way.
Classical Philology vol. 10 79 - 1966
If the substantive happens to be a quasi-adverbial time-word..the construction is anomalous. In such expressions the verb is zeugmatic.
Ériu vol. 20 210 - 2007
The front page—..using that lovely zeugmatic US headline style that we don't have—announced: ‘Search on for bodies, answers.’
Daily Telegraph (Nexis) 6 August 18
society leisure the arts literature style of language or writing figure of speech figures of structure or thought [adjectives] relating to zeugma or syllepsis- zeugmatical1610–Characterized by or involving zeugma. Cf. zeugmatic, adj.
- sylleptical1807–
- zeugmatic1851–Characterized by or involving zeugma. Cf. zeugmatical, adj.
- sylleptic1865–Pertaining to, of the nature of, or involving syllepsis.
Pronunciation
British English
U.S. English
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
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
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
zeugmatic typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.
zeugmatic is in frequency band 2, which contains words occurring between 0.001 and 0.01 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands
Frequency of zeugmatic, adj., 1860–2010
* 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 |
|---|---|
| 1860 | 0.0001 |
| 1870 | 0.0001 |
| 1880 | 0.0003 |
| 1890 | 0.0003 |
| 1900 | 0.0002 |
| 1910 | 0.0002 |
| 1920 | 0.0003 |
| 1930 | 0.0005 |
| 1940 | 0.0007 |
| 1950 | 0.0008 |
| 1960 | 0.0011 |
| 1970 | 0.0013 |
| 1980 | 0.0016 |
| 1990 | 0.0018 |
| 2000 | 0.0019 |
| 2010 | 0.0019 |