zambuk, n.

zambuk
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zambuk_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2023

# zambuknoun

## Earlier version

- zambuk in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zambuk mean?

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

This word is used in Australian English and New Zealand English.

### How common is the noun zambuk?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1910 | 0.0017
1920 | 0.0014
1930 | 0.0015
1940 | 0.0013
1950 | 0.0004
1960 | 0.0004
1970 | 0.0005
1980 | 0.0006
1990 | 0.0007
2000 | 0.0005
2010 | 0.0006

### How is the noun zambuk pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzambʌk/
ZAM-buck

#### U.S. English

/ˈzæmˌbək/
ZAM-buck

#### New Zealand English

/ˈzɛmbʌk/

#### Australian English

/ˈzæmbʌk/

### Where does the noun zambuk come from?

Earliest known use

1900s

The earliest known use of the noun zambuk is in the 1900s.

OED's earliest evidence for zambuk is from 1906, in St George Call (Kogarah, Australia).

From a proper name.

Etymons: proper name Zam-Buk.

### Nearby entries

1. zamang, n. 1819–
2. zamarra, n. 1841–
3. zama zama, n. 2006–
4. Zamazim, n. a1400–
5. Zambian, adj. & n. 1959–
6. Zambianization, n. 1964–
7. Zambianize, v. 1964–
8. zambo, n. 1819–
9. Zamboni, n. 1965–
10. zambra, n. 1672–
11. zambuk, n.1906–
12. zamburak, n. 1825–
13. zami, n. 1977–
14. Zamia, n. 1819–
15. zamindar, n. 1683–
16. zamindari, n. & adj. 1742–
17. zamindarship, n. 1698–1902
18. zamioid, adj. 1860–
19. zamorin, n. 1582–
20. zampino, n. 1881–
21. zampogna, n. 1740–

## Etymology

### Summary

From a proper name.
Etymon: proper name Zam-Buk.
< Zam-Buk, the proprietary name of a popular brand of antiseptic ointment, first produced by the Bile Bean Manufacturing Company of Sydney, Australia in 1902, and marketed worldwide; apparently an…
< Zam-Buk, the proprietary name of a popular brand of antiseptic ointment, first produced by the Bile Bean Manufacturing Company of Sydney, Australia in 1902, and marketed worldwide; apparently an arbitrary formation.

### Notes

Compare:

1. 1902

   > Zam-Buk. Name carries no meaning. The ointment carries a blessing to thousands of sufferers.

   Truth (Sydney) 21 December 7/4 (advertisement)

## Meaning & use

colloquial (New Zealand and Australian). Now dated.

1. 1906–
   A medic, paramedic, or first-aid worker, esp. at a sporting event; spec. a member of St John Ambulance. Also as a modifier.
   1. 1906

      > The former requiring the attendance of ‘Zam-Buck’ as the ambulance man is familiarly known by footballers.

      St George Call (Kogarah, Australia) 25 August 2/4
   2. 1918

      > The tenderfoot and Zambuk, Working madly in the trenches, Comes a ‘gutzer’ in those trenches, And is taught to take a rumble.

      Chronicles of N.Z.E.F. 21 June 221/1
   3. 1950

      > Everybody would shout, ‘Zambuk! Zambuk!’ until the first-aid man came to the rescue.

      B. Sutton-Smith, Our Street iv. 50
   4. 1968

      > No injuries to attend to so these ‘Zambuk’ ladies get on with their knitting at the basketball recently.

      Wanganui Photo News 31 August 13 (caption)
   5. 1969

      > The driver was dead... There was a girl in a bad way mixed up with him. ‘Better leave it for the zambucs,’ Payne said.

      New Zealand Listener 23 May 12/3
   6. 2018

      > The lads will be under the stern supervision of former Wallabies coach, Rod Macqueen AM—with current Brumby and hay farmer, Josh Mann-Rea, serving as Zambuck.

      Forbes (New South Wales) Advocate (Nexis) 27 July 20
   medicine Australian English New Zealand English colloquial and slang
   1. first-aider 1894–
      A person who is skilled in first aid.
   2. zambuk 1906–
      A medic, paramedic, or first-aid worker, esp. at a sporting event; spec. a member of St John Ambulance. Also as a modifier.
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. ambulanceman 1854–
      (Originally) an attendant or assistant attached to a field hospital; (in later use) a person (esp. a man) who drives an ambulance or who is a member…
   2. ambulance driver 1855–
      A person who drives an ambulance; (in later use) spec. one trained to provide emergency medical care to people who are seriously ill or injured…
   3. ambulance officer 1861–
      a. An army officer attached to a field hospital (now historical); b. (chiefly Australian and New Zealand) a member of an ambulance crew; a paramedic.
   4. ambulancier 1871–
      A soldier or civilian volunteer in charge of a military ambulance or attached to an ambulance corps.
   5. zambuk 1906–
      A medic, paramedic, or first-aid worker, esp. at a sporting event; spec. a member of St John Ambulance. Also as a modifier.
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. zambuk 1968–
      A medic, paramedic, or first-aid worker, esp. at a sporting event; spec. a member of St John Ambulance. Also as a modifier.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzambʌk/
ZAM-buck

### U.S. English

/ˈzæmˌbək/
ZAM-buck

### New Zealand English

/ˈzɛmbʌk/

### Australian English

/ˈzæmbʌk/

####

##### 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.

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye*
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- 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 as in British and US English.

##### Vowels

- iːfleece
- ihappy, sing
- əkit, letter, ago
- edress
- ɛtrap
- ʌstrut
- ʌːstart, palm, bath
- ɒlot, cloth
- oːthought, north, force
- ʊfoot
- ʉːgoose
- ɵːnurse
- ʌʉgoat
- æʉmouth
- iənear
- eəsquare
- ʉəcure
- æeface
- ɑepride
- oevoice

Māori-origin words may vary in length or diphthongal quality.

In New Zealand English, words of Māori origin are treated slightly differently from the rest. Multiple pronunciations may be given, the first of which is a close representation of the Māori pronunciation. Varying degrees of anglicization may be reflected in subsequent pronunciations. The Māori pronunciations use the same vowel symbols as above but with varying length (e.g. /eː/ in addition to /e/) or different diphthong qualities.

##### 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
- 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 as in British and US English.

##### Vowels

- iːfleece
- ihappy
- ɪkit
- edress
- ætrap
- ʌːpalm, bath, start
- ʌstrut
- ɔlot, cloth
- oːthought, north, force, sure
- ʊfoot
- ʉːgoose
- ɜːnurse
- æeface
- ɑepride
- əletter
- ɪənear
- eːsquare
- ʉːəcure
- æɔmouth
- əʉgoat
- oɪvoice
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/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.

1. 1900s–
   zambuc, zam-buck, zambuck, zambuk

#### 2. Also with capital initial(s).

## Frequency

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

zambuk 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 zambuk, n., 1910–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1910 | 0.0017
1920 | 0.0014
1930 | 0.0015
1940 | 0.0013
1950 | 0.0004
1960 | 0.0004
1970 | 0.0005
1980 | 0.0006
1990 | 0.0007
2000 | 0.0005
2010 | 0.0006

zambuk, n. was revised in March 2023.

zambuk, n. was last modified in July 2023.