zurna, n.

zurna
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zurna_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1986; not fully revised

# zurnanoun

## Earlier version

- zurna in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zurna mean?

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

#### Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

### How common is the noun zurna?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1870 | 0.0005
1880 | 0.0004
1890 | 0.0006
1900 | 0.0009
1910 | 0.0009
1920 | 0.0014
1930 | 0.0018
1940 | 0.0039
1950 | 0.005
1960 | 0.0055
1970 | 0.0068
1980 | 0.0083
1990 | 0.0091
2000 | 0.01
2010 | 0.0092

### How is the noun zurna pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzʊəna/

### Where does the noun zurna come from?

Earliest known use

1870s

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

OED's earliest evidence for zurna is from 1870, in the writing of Carl Engel.

zurna is a borrowing from Turkish.

### Nearby entries

1. zumbador, n. 1758–64
2. zumbi, n. 1704–
3. zumboorukchee, n. 1840–
4. Zuñi, n. 1834–
5. zunyite, n. 1885–
6. zuppa, n. 1961–
7. Zurich, n. 1870–
8. Zuricher, n. 1673–
9. zurla, n. 1940–
10. zurlite, n. 1826–
11. zurna, n.1870–
12. zurr, n. 1803–
13. zussmanite, n. 1965–
14. zut, int. 1915–
15. zuur-veldt, n. 1785–
16. zuz, n. 1688–
17. zwanziger, n. 1828–
18. Zweig, n. 1973–
19. zwieback, n. 1894–
20. zwieselite, n. 1861–
21. Zwinglian, n. & adj. 1532–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Turkish.
Turkish; compare Persian surnā.

## Meaning & use

Music.

1. 1870–
   A Turkish pipe resembling a bagpipe or shawm.
   1. 1870

      > Zourna, a kind of hautboy... The zourna has usually a mouthpiece consisting of a brass tube. Hindustan.

      C. Engel, Descriptive Catalogue of Musical Instruments in South Kensington Museum 17
   2. 1870

      > Zourna Vezirli [from Turkey].

      C. Engel, Descriptive Catalogue of Musical Instruments in South Kensington Museum 28
   3. 1876

      > Zurna, a Turkish wind instrument similar in character to the oboe.

      J. Stainer & W. A. Barrett, Dictionary of Musical Terms 456/1
   4. 1941

      > Nine musicians playing the zurna (a kind of oboe), including their chief..the bandmaster.

      N. Bessaraboff, Ancient European Musical Instruments 20
   5. 1953

      > We may assume that the Persian word zurnâ is the root from which zurna, zurne, zurla and surla were derived.

      Y. Arbatsky, Beating Tupan in Central Balkans 4
   6. 1965

      > Speaking of the mouth~blown cylindrical pipes which she inclines to regard as ancestors of the modern clarinet, would she be referring to the zurna, sometimes known as duduk?

      Listener 24 June 940/3
   7. 1976

      > If you are genuinely interested in the derivation, history and characteristics of musical instruments,..you will find everything from the accordion to the zurna in ‘Musical Instruments of the World’.

      Southern Evening Echo (Southampton) 11 November 20/2
   music
   1. shepherd's pipe c1440–
      (See quot. 1881).
   2. alto fagotto 1829–
      = tenoroon, n. 1.
   3. bombarde 1846–
      A double-reed woodwind instrument resembling an oboe or bagpipe chanter, used chiefly in traditional Breton dance music and characterized by its…
   4. tenoroon 1849–
      A wooden reed-instrument intermediate in pitch between the oboe and the bassoon; also called tenor oboe or tenor bassoon. Also attributive, as te…
   5. krummhorn 1864–
      A wind-instrument of a curved form.
   6. zurna 1870–
      A Turkish pipe resembling a bagpipe or shawm.
   7. rackett 1876–
      A double-reed woodwind instrument of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, with a squat cylindrical body in which nine parallel bores are drilled…
   8. suona 1881–
      A Chinese wind instrument with a reed mouthpiece.
   9. heckelphone 1905–
      A baritone oboe.
   10. surnai 1905–
       A South Asian variety of oboe.
   11. shehnai 1914–
       An Indian wind instrument of the oboe class.
   12. doppione 1953–
       A double-bore woodwind instrument of the Italian Renaissance.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzʊəna/

####

##### 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.

## Forms

### Variant forms

Also 1800s zourna; 1900s– surna.

## Frequency

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

zurna 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 data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.

### Frequency of zurna, n., 1870–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1870 | 0.0005
1880 | 0.0004
1890 | 0.0006
1900 | 0.0009
1910 | 0.0009
1920 | 0.0014
1930 | 0.0018
1940 | 0.0039
1950 | 0.005
1960 | 0.0055
1970 | 0.0068
1980 | 0.0083
1990 | 0.0091
2000 | 0.01
2010 | 0.0092

zurna, n. was first published in 1986; not fully revised.

zurna, n. was last modified in December 2024.