zill, n.

zill
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zill_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# zillnoun

## Earlier version

- zel in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zill mean?

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

### How common is the noun zill?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1800 | 0.0031
1810 | 0.0026
1820 | 0.0025
1830 | 0.0024
1840 | 0.0019
1850 | 0.0013
1860 | 0.0012
1870 | 0.0013
1880 | 0.0012
1890 | 0.0011
1900 | 0.0013
1910 | 0.0012
1920 | 0.0012
1930 | 0.0014
1940 | 0.002
1950 | 0.0026
1960 | 0.0032
1970 | 0.0035
1980 | 0.0041
1990 | 0.0046
2000 | 0.0051
2010 | 0.0051

### How is the noun zill pronounced?

#### British English

/zɪl/
zil

#### U.S. English

/zɪl/
zil

### Where does the noun zill come from?

Earliest known use

mid 1700s

The earliest known use of the noun zill is in the mid 1700s.

OED's earliest evidence for zill is from 1754, in the writing of Alexander Drummond, traveller.

zill is a borrowing from Turkish.

Etymons: Ottoman Turkish zil.

### Nearby entries

1. zigzagged, adj. 1774–
2. zigzaggery, n. 1761–
3. zigzaggy, adj. a1845–
4. zigzag machine, n. 1952–
5. zigzag trefoil, n. 1796–
6. zig-zig, n. 1918–
7. Zika, n. 1952–
8. Zilavka, n. 1926–
9. zilch, n. & adj. 1925–
10. zilch, v. 1957–
11. zill, n.1754–
12. zilla, n. 1772–
13. -zilla, comb. form
14. zilladar, n. 1763–
15. Zil lane, n. 1985–
16. zilla parishad, n. 1957–
17. zillion, n. & adj. 1920–
18. zillionaire, n. 1926–
19. zillionth, n. & adj. 1940–
20. zimb, n. 1790–
21. Zimba, n. 1625–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Turkish.
Etymon: Ottoman Turkish zil.
< Ottoman Turkish zil, zīl small cymbal, castanet, bell on a tambourine (Turkish zil); further etymology uncertain.

## Meaning & use

1. 1754–
   A type of cymbal traditionally used in Turkish and Middle Eastern music or dance; esp. a small cymbal of a kind usually played in pairs, being attached to the fingers and thumb and struck together to make a sound (cf. finger cymbal n.). Frequently in plural.
   1. 1754

      > Brass plates, which they call zel, or cymbals, which a fellow gingled together.

      A. Drummond, Travels v. 119
   2. 1817

      > Where, some hours since, was heard the swell Of trumpet and the clash of zel.

      T. Moore, Lalla Rookh i. 8
   3. 1838

      > The clash of the zell, the boom of the African drum, and the wild and barbarous blast of the Moorish clarion.

      E. Bulwer-Lytton, Leila iv. i. 167
   4. 1870

      > The brothers Keuropé..export annually about 1,300 pairs of zils into Western European countries.

      C. Engel, Descriptive Catalogue of Musical Instruments in South Kensington Museum 25
   5. 1978

      > A dancer may have tied a scarf tightly around her hips, draped a scarf over her hands or picked up a set of zills.

      Dance Research Journal vol. 10 16/1
   6. 2002

      > Belly dancing..classes are accompanied by live percussionists and women play finger cymbals called zills.

      Time 28 October 57/3
   music
   1. cymbal Old English–
      One of a pair of concave plates of brass or bronze, which are struck together to produce a sharp ringing sound. Also used singly and struck with a…
   2. chime a1300–1400
      A cymbal. Obsolete.
   3. chime-bell c1300
      A cymbal (see etymology).
   4. basins a1350–1630
      plural. Hollow metal dishes clashed together to produce sound; ? cymbals. The beating of metal basins was formerly part of the mocking accompaniment…
   5. target 1696
      Applied to various objects resembling a target or shield. A cymbal. Obsolete.
   6. zill 1754–
      A type of cymbal traditionally used in Turkish and Middle Eastern music or dance; esp. a small cymbal of a kind usually played in pairs, being…
   7. Turkish cymbal 1816–
      A cymbal of Turkish origin, or of a style considered characteristic of Turkey; (in later use) spec. type of cymbal with a flat or slightly arched…
   8. cymbalon 1824–
      = cymbal, n.
   9. Chinese cymbal 1827–
      A cymbal of Chinese origin, or of a style considered characteristic of China; (in later use) spec. a type of cymbal with a distinct upturned edge.
   10. finger cymbal 1845–
       A small cymbal of a type usually played in pairs, one being attached to the index or middle finger, and the other to the thumb, so that the two can…
   11. crash cymbal 1927–
       A cymbal hung in such a way as to make a crashing noise when struck with a drumstick.
   12. choke-cymbal 1934–
       (See quots. 1934, 1938); also, a cymbal that is ‘choked’ (see choke, v. II.10b).
   13. sock cymbal 1936–
       = high hat, n. A.3; also attributive.
   14. sizzle cymbal 1944–
       A cymbal, used chiefly in jazz and dance bands, with several small rivets set loosely through it to make a sizzling sound when the cymbal is struck.
   15. top cymbal 1948–
       A ride cymbal (see ride, n.² 5c).
   16. ride 1956–
       In full ride cymbal. A cymbal used by esp. jazz or rock drummers for keeping up a continuous rhythm.
   17. splash cymbal 1961–
       A small, light cymbal.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zɪl/
zil

### U.S. English

/zɪl/
zil

####

##### 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. 1700s–1800s
   zel
2. 1800s
   zell
3. 1800s–
   zil, zill

## Frequency

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

zill 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 zill, n., 1800–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1800 | 0.0031
1810 | 0.0026
1820 | 0.0025
1830 | 0.0024
1840 | 0.0019
1850 | 0.0013
1860 | 0.0012
1870 | 0.0013
1880 | 0.0012
1890 | 0.0011
1900 | 0.0013
1910 | 0.0012
1920 | 0.0012
1930 | 0.0014
1940 | 0.002
1950 | 0.0026
1960 | 0.0032
1970 | 0.0035
1980 | 0.0041
1990 | 0.0046
2000 | 0.0051
2010 | 0.0051

zill, n. was revised in June 2018.

zill, n. was last modified in July 2023.