zoogony, n.

zoogony
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoogony_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zoogonynoun

## Earlier version

- zoogony in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zoogony mean?

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

### How common is the noun zoogony?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1820 | 0.0017
1830 | 0.0014
1840 | 0.0013
1850 | 0.0011
1860 | 0.0007
1870 | 0.0006
1880 | 0.0006
1890 | 0.0002
1900 | 0.0002
1910 | 0.0001
1920 | 0.0003
1930 | 0.0008
1940 | 0.001
1950 | 0.0012
1960 | 0.0014
1970 | 0.0016
1980 | 0.0019
1990 | 0.002
2000 | 0.0018
2010 | 0.0019

### How is the noun zoogony pronounced?

#### British English

/zuːˈɒɡəni/
zoo-OG-uh-nee
/zuːˈɒɡn̩i/
zoo-OG-uhn-ee

#### U.S. English

/zuˈɑɡəni/
zoo-AH-guh-nee
/zoʊˈɑɡəni/
zoh-AH-guh-nee

### Where does the noun zoogony come from?

Earliest known use

late 1600s

The earliest known use of the noun zoogony is in the late 1600s.

OED's earliest evidence for zoogony is from 1675, in the writing of Richard Burthogge, philosopher.

zoogony is of multiple origins. Either (i) a borrowing from Latin. Or (ii) a borrowing from Greek.

Etymons: Latin zoogonia; Greek ζῳογονία.

### Nearby entries

1. zoogeographically, adv. 1883–
2. zoogeography, n. 1851–
3. zoogeological, adj. 1841–
4. zoogeologist, n. 1844–
5. zoogeology, n. 1838–
6. zoogloea, n. 1861–
7. zoogloeal, adj. 1879–
8. zoogloeic, adj. 1883–
9. zoogonic, adj. 1787–
10. zoogonidium, n. 1857–
11. zoogony, n.1675–
12. zoograph, n. 1623
13. zoographer, n. 1646–
14. zoographic, adj. 1741–
15. zoographical, adj. 1651–
16. zoographically, adv. 1835–
17. zoographist, n. 1749–1874
18. zoography, n. 1593–
19. zoogyroscope, n. 1880–
20. zooid, n. 1851–
21. zooid, adj. 1849

## Etymology

### Summary

Either (i) a borrowing from Latin. Or (ii) a borrowing from Greek.
Etymons: Latin zoogonia; Greek ζῳογονία.
< post-classical Latin zoogonia (1556 or earlier) or its etymon ancient Greek ζῳογονία production of animals < ζῳο- zoo- comb. form + ‑γονία ‑gony comb. form.

## Meaning & use

1. 1675–
   The generation or development of animals or of living things generally; a theory, doctrine, or account relating to this.
   1. 1675

      > The Theogonie and Zoogonie [printed -enie] of the Antients.

      R. Burthogge, Cavsa Dei 242
   2. 1752

      > This is his dreaming and senseless Zoogony, or Generation of Animals, extracted from the Writings of Taaut.

      J. Jackson, Chronological Antiquities vol. III. 11
   3. 1842

      > The supports of his grand law-creation are three hypotheses..his cosmogony, zoogony, zoonomy.

      Methodist Quarterly Review April
   4. 1863

      > Lamarck and other French zoölogists, attempted to show how animals and plants might spring, by the force of law, from particles inherently vitalized, which may be called the zoögony of the hypothesis.

      Bibliotheca Sacra July 521
   5. 1941

      > Close connexion of the anthropology with the cosmogony and zoogony is shown by the similar process of evolution.

      Classical Quarterly vol. 35 10/1
   6. 1970

      > Love's action..in producing animal parts at the beginning of her zoogony.

      Journal of Hellenic Studies vol. 90 156
   7. 2004

      > Empedocles' account of the mixed-up hybrid creatures that came into existence in the primordial zoogony.

      Harvard Studies in Classical Philology vol. 102 99
   animals
   1. zoogony 1675–
      The generation or development of animals or of living things generally; a theory, doctrine, or account relating to this.
   2. get 1807
      Begetting, procreation. Formerly also: birth, hereditary right. Obsolete.
   3. zoogeny 1826–
      The process of animal reproduction and development; the origin or evolution of animals or animal species. Also: a theory, doctrine, or account of…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zuːˈɒɡəni/
zoo-OG-uh-nee
/zuːˈɒɡn̩i/
zoo-OG-uhn-ee
/zəʊˈɒɡəni/
zoh-OG-uh-nee
/zəʊˈɒɡn̩i/
zoh-OG-uhn-ee

### U.S. English

/zuˈɑɡəni/
zoo-AH-guh-nee
/zoʊˈɑɡəni/
zoh-AH-guh-nee

####

##### 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

## Forms

### Variant forms

1. 1600s
   zoogonie
2. 1700s–
   zoogony
3. 1800s–1900s
   zoögony

## Frequency

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

zoogony 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 zoogony, n., 1820–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1820 | 0.0017
1830 | 0.0014
1840 | 0.0013
1850 | 0.0011
1860 | 0.0007
1870 | 0.0006
1880 | 0.0006
1890 | 0.0002
1900 | 0.0002
1910 | 0.0001
1920 | 0.0003
1930 | 0.0008
1940 | 0.001
1950 | 0.0012
1960 | 0.0014
1970 | 0.0016
1980 | 0.0019
1990 | 0.002
2000 | 0.0018
2010 | 0.0019

zoogony, n. was revised in June 2017.

zoogony, n. was last modified in July 2023.