zoophilism, n.

zoophilism
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoophilism_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zoophilismnoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zoophilism mean?

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

### How common is the noun zoophilism?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1880 | 0.0001
1890 | 0.0004
1900 | 0.0008
1910 | 0.0012
1920 | 0.0015
1930 | 0.0016
1940 | 0.0016
1950 | 0.0017
1960 | 0.0016
1970 | 0.0011
1980 | 0.0007
1990 | 0.0005
2000 | 0.0004
2010 | 0.0004

### How is the noun zoophilism pronounced?

#### British English

/zuːˈɒfᵻlɪz(ə)m/
zoo-OFF-uh-liz-uhm
/zəʊˈɒfᵻlɪz(ə)m/
zoh-OFF-uh-liz-uhm

#### U.S. English

/zuˈɑfəˌlɪzəm/
zoo-AH-fuh-liz-uhm
/zoʊˈɑfəˌlɪzəm/
zoh-AH-fuh-liz-uhm

### Where does the noun zoophilism come from?

Earliest known use

1860s

The earliest known use of the noun zoophilism is in the 1860s.

OED's earliest evidence for zoophilism is from 1867, in Annual Rep. Board Regents Smithsonian Inst. 1866.

zoophilism is formed within English, by compounding.

Etymons: zoo- comb. form, ‑philism comb. form.

### Nearby entries

1. zoo-organic, adj. 1821–90
2. zoopathologist, n. 1898–
3. zoopathology, n. 1841–
4. zoophagan, n. & adj. 1835–
5. zoophagic, adj. 1903–
6. zoophagous, adj. 1788–
7. zoophagy, n. 1849–
8. zoophile, n. 1885–
9. zoophilia, n. 1894–
10. zoophilic, adj. 1884–
11. zoophilism, n.1867–
12. zoophilist, n. 1829–
13. zoophilite, n. 1879–
14. zoophilous, adj. 1881–
15. zoophily, n. 1830–
16. zoophobia, n. 1888–
17. zoophysical, adj. 1820–
18. zoophysics, n. 1887–
19. zoophysiology, n. 1803–
20. zoophytal, adj. 1756–
21. zoophyte, n. 1606–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by compounding.
Etymons: zoo- comb. form, ‑philism comb. form.
< zoo- comb. form + ‑philism comb. form.

Compare earlier zoophilist n. and zoophily n.…
< zoo- comb. form + ‑philism comb. form.

Compare earlier zoophilist n. and zoophily n.

### Notes

Compare French zoophilisme opposition to cruelty to animals (1846 or earlier; now rare) and German Zoophilismus sexual attraction to animals (1938 or earlier).

## Meaning & use

1. 1867–
   In early use: emotional attachment to, or love of, animals; opposition to cruelty to animals (= zoophilia n. 1). Now usually: sexual attraction to, or sexual activity with, animals (= zoophilia n. 2). Cf. zoophile n. 1.
   1. 1867

      > This stranger whose offensive temerity had broken through all the humanitarian barriers established by English zoophilism.

      Annual Rep. Board Regents Smithsonian Inst. 1866 99 in U.S. Congressional Serial Set (39th Congr., 2nd Sess.: Senate Misc. Doc. 83)
   2. 1886

      > The Progress of Zoophilism.

      Saturday Review 28 August 290/2
   3. 1913

      > Zo-Ophilism... Anti-vivisectionists are incurable in their stupidity and their ostrich-like disregard for facts.

      Sioux County (Hull, Iowa) Index 31 October 2/6
   4. 1980

      > A..wife-beating sadist who collected pornography, encouraged zoophilism, enlisted his wife into his swinging practices [etc.].

      Washington Post (Nexis) 18 August b1
   animals
   1. zoophily 1830–
      Emotional attachment to, or love of, animals; opposition to cruelty to animals. Also occasionally: sexual attraction to, or activity with, animals…
   2. zoophilism 1867–
      In early use: emotional attachment to, or love of, animals; opposition to cruelty to animals (= zoophilia, n. 1). Now usually: sexual attraction to…
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. zoophilism 1867–
      In early use: emotional attachment to, or love of, animals; opposition to cruelty to animals (= zoophilia, n. 1). Now usually: sexual attraction to…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zuːˈɒfᵻlɪz(ə)m/
zoo-OFF-uh-liz-uhm
/zəʊˈɒfᵻlɪz(ə)m/
zoh-OFF-uh-liz-uhm

### U.S. English

/zuˈɑfəˌlɪzəm/
zoo-AH-fuh-liz-uhm
/zoʊˈɑfəˌlɪzəm/
zoh-AH-fuh-liz-uhm

####

##### 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

(a) See zoo- comb. form and ‑philism comb. form
(b) Also

1. 1900s
   zo-ophilism

## Frequency

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

zoophilism 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 zoophilism, 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 | 0.0001
1890 | 0.0004
1900 | 0.0008
1910 | 0.0012
1920 | 0.0015
1930 | 0.0016
1940 | 0.0016
1950 | 0.0017
1960 | 0.0016
1970 | 0.0011
1980 | 0.0007
1990 | 0.0005
2000 | 0.0004
2010 | 0.0004

Originally published as part of the entry for zoophile, n.

zoophilism, n. was revised in June 2017.

zoophilism, n. was last modified in July 2023.