zaninessnoun
Factsheet
What does the noun zaniness mean?
There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun zaniness. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.
How common is the noun zaniness?
| 2017 | 0.045 |
| 2018 | 0.042 |
| 2019 | 0.041 |
| 2020 | 0.039 |
| 2021 | 0.039 |
| 2022 | 0.037 |
| 2023 | 0.039 |
| 2024 | 0.039 |
How is the noun zaniness pronounced?
British English
U.S. English
Where does the noun zaniness come from?
Earliest known use
1930s
The earliest known use of the noun zaniness is in the 1930s.
OED's earliest evidence for zaniness is from 1933, in Salt Lake Telegram.
zaniness is formed within English, by derivation.
Etymons: zany adj., ‑ness suffix.
Nearby entries
- zamorin, n.1582–
- zampino, n.1881–
- zampogna, n.1740–
- zampone, n.1860–
- zamzawed, adj.1743–
- Zamzummim, n.1530–
- Zande, n.1873–
- zander, n.1854–
- zanella, n.1876–
- zanily, adv.1936–
- zaniness, n.1933–
- Zante, n.1615–
- Zantedeschia, n.1836–
- ZANU, n.1963–
- zany, n. & adj.1582–
- zany, v.1602–1894
- zanyish, adj.1843–
- zanyism, n.1823–
- zanyship, n.1766–1839
- Zanzibari, n. & adj.1882–
- zap, n.1968–
Etymology
Summary
Meaning & use
- 1933–The state, condition, or quality of being zany; esp. imaginative or amusing unconventionality; humorously eccentric, absurd, or chaotic behaviour. Cf. zany adj.
- 1933
The Marxes have rolled up quite a reputation for plain and fancy zaniness, but ‘Duck Soup’ is their best.
Salt Lake Telegram 17 November (Home edition) 23/3 - 1960
Ginsberg, for all his carefully cultivated (and natural) zaniness, is a writer far above Kerouac.
Saturday Review (U.S.) 6 February 13/2 - 1985
How could anything with Jerry Lewis not fall into a comic range somewhere between surrealistic zaniness and childish destructiveness?
Listener 21 March 28/3 - 2022
It's high-energy, non-stop zaniness, full of bonkers, off the wall humour.
National Post (Canada) 4 November f12/3
the mind emotion pleasure laughter causing laughter [nouns] one who or that which is comical quality or condition of- comicalness?1691–The quality of being comical.
- comicality1718–The quality or fact of being comical or comic.
- vis comica1757–In special collocations with other Latin words. vis comica, humorous energy; comic force or effect.
- drollness1823–
- funniness1836–The quality or state of being funny (chiefly in sense A.1).
- farcicality1849–Farcical quality; an instance of this.
- funniosity1920–Humour, jocularity. Now somewhat rare.
- zaniness1933–The state, condition, or quality of being zany; esp. imaginative or amusing unconventionality; humorously eccentric, absurd, or chaotic…
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
zaniness typically occurs about 0.04 times per million words in modern written English.
zaniness is in frequency band 3, which contains words occurring between 0.01 and 0.1 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands
Frequency of zaniness, n., 2017–2024
* Occurrences per million words in written English
Modern frequency series are derived from a corpus of 20 billion words, covering the period from 2017 to the present. The corpus is mainly compiled from online news sources, and covers all major varieties of World English.
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 corpus.
| Period | Frequency per million words |
|---|---|
| 2017 | 0.045 |
| 2018 | 0.042 |
| 2019 | 0.041 |
| 2020 | 0.039 |
| 2021 | 0.039 |
| 2022 | 0.037 |
| 2023 | 0.039 |
| 2024 | 0.039 |