zooerythrin, n.

zooerythrin
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zooerythrin_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zooerythrinnoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zooerythrin mean?

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

### How common is the noun zooerythrin?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1880 | 0.0005
1890 | 0.0004
1900 | 0.0005
1910 | 0.0005
1920 | 0.0005
1930 | 0.0004
1940 | 0.0004
1950 | 0.0003
1960 | 0.0003
1970 | 0.0001
1980 | 0.0001
1990 | 0.0001
2000 | 0.00006
2010 | 0.00003

### How is the noun zooerythrin pronounced?

#### British English

/ˌzuːᵻˈrɪθrɪn/
zoo-uh-RITH-rin
/ˌzəʊᵻˈrɪθrɪn/
zoh-uh-RITH-rin

#### U.S. English

/ˌzoʊəˈrɪθrən/
zoh-uh-RITH-ruhn
/ˌzuəˈrɪθrən/
zoo-uh-RITH-ruhn

### Where does the noun zooerythrin come from?

Earliest known use

1870s

The earliest known use of the noun zooerythrin is in the 1870s.

OED's earliest evidence for zooerythrin is from 1871, in a translation by Henry Watts, chemist.

### Nearby entries

1. zoo-crazy, adj. 1938–
2. zoocultural, adj. 1899–
3. zooculture, n. 1873–
4. zoocytium, n. 1880–
5. zoodendrium, n. 1880–
6. Zoodikers, int. 1749–98
7. zoodynamic, adj.?1819–
8. zoodynamics, n. 1888–
9. zooecial, adj. 1873–
10. zooecium, n. 1871–
11. zooerythrin, n.1871–
12. zooflagellate, n. & adj. 1911–
13. zooful, n. 1914–
14. zoofulvin, n. 1871–
15. zoogamete, n. 1879–
16. zoogene, n. 1820–69
17. zoogenic, adj. 1842–
18. zoogeny, n. 1826–
19. zoogeographer, n. 1868–
20. zoogeographic, adj. 1875–
21. zoogeographical, adj. 1864–

## Etymology

< zoo- comb. form + ancient Greek ἐρυθρός red (see erythro- comb. form) + ‑in suffix1, after German Zooerythrin (1870 in the passage translated in quot. 1871).

## Meaning & use

1. 1871–
   A red carotenoid pigment found animals, esp. in the plumage of certain birds.
   1. 1871

      > Colouring matters may be extracted, and among these the yellow, red, lilac, and green (zoofulvin, zooerythrin, zooverdin), are soluble in ether and alcohol.

      H. Watts, translation of L. Gmelin, Hand-book of Chemistry vol. XVIII. 419
   2. 1960

      > In the one extreme race..zooerythrin is totally lacking, while in the other extreme this red pigment is so intense that it bars all green and yellow shades.

      B. Rensch, Evolution above Species Level iii. 34
   3. 2012

      > This group of birds harbours unusually bright, non-carotenoid feather pigments which..differ from the widely distributed carotenoids (zooerythrin and xanthoerythrin).

      A. Lima-de-Faria, Molecular Geom. Body Pattern Birds ii. 11/1
   birds invertebrates
   1. zooerythrin 1871–
      A red carotenoid pigment found animals, esp. in the plumage of certain birds.
   2. zoofulvin 1871–
      A yellow carotenoid pigment (xanthophyll) found in the plumage of certain birds.
   3. zoonerythrin 1882–
      A red carotenoid pigment found animals, esp. in the plumage of certain birds; = zooerythrin, n.
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. zooerythrin 1871–
      A red carotenoid pigment found animals, esp. in the plumage of certain birds.
   2. zoonerythrin 1882–
      A red carotenoid pigment found animals, esp. in the plumage of certain birds; = zooerythrin, n.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˌzuːᵻˈrɪθrɪn/
zoo-uh-RITH-rin
/ˌzəʊᵻˈrɪθrɪn/
zoh-uh-RITH-rin

### U.S. English

/ˌzoʊəˈrɪθrən/
zoh-uh-RITH-ruhn
/ˌzuəˈrɪθrən/
zoo-uh-RITH-ruhn

####

##### 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

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

zooerythrin 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 zooerythrin, n., 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 | 0.0005
1890 | 0.0004
1900 | 0.0005
1910 | 0.0005
1920 | 0.0005
1930 | 0.0004
1940 | 0.0004
1950 | 0.0003
1960 | 0.0003
1970 | 0.0001
1980 | 0.0001
1990 | 0.0001
2000 | 0.00006
2010 | 0.00003

Originally published as part of the entry for zoo-, comb. form

zoo-, comb. form was revised in June 2017.