zosterops, n.

zosterops
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zosterops_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1921; not fully revised

# zosteropsnoun

## Earlier version

- zosterops in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zosterops mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun zosterops. 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 zosterops?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1860 | 0.0007
1870 | 0.0007
1880 | 0.0006
1890 | 0.0005
1900 | 0.0006
1910 | 0.0005
1920 | 0.0006
1930 | 0.0007
1940 | 0.0006
1950 | 0.0007
1960 | 0.0008
1970 | 0.0007
1980 | 0.0006
1990 | 0.0004
2000 | 0.0004
2010 | 0.0004

### How is the noun zosterops pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɒstərɒps/

### Where does the noun zosterops come from?

Earliest known use

1860s

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

OED's earliest evidence for zosterops is from 1867, in the writing of A. L. Adams.

zosterops is a borrowing from Latin.

### Nearby entries

1. Zoroastrian, adj. & n. 1597–
2. Zoroastrianism, n. 1832–
3. Zoroastrianize, v. 1891–
4. Zoroastric, adj. a1739–
5. Zoroastrism, n. 1819–
6. zorrino, n. 1885–
7. zorro, n. 1838–
8. zos-grass, n. 1937–
9. zoster, n. 1601–
10. zostera, n. 1819–
11. zosterops, n.1867–
12. Zouave, n. 1848–
13. zouk, n. 1986–
14. zounds, v. 1680
15. zounds, int. a1593–
16. Zou-Zou, n. 1860–
17. zowie, int. 1902–
18. zoysia, n. 1965–
19. ZPG, n. 1970–
20. Zr, n. 1814–
21. zubr, n. 1763–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Latin.
modern Latin (Vigors and Horsfield, 1827), < Greek ζωστήρ girdle + ‑ops comb. form.

## Meaning & use

Ornithology.

1. 1867–
   Any of the small birds of the genus so named, widely distributed chiefly in tropical and subtropical regions, and characterized by a ring of white feathers round the eye; a silver-eye or white-eye.
   1. 1867

      > That beautiful warbler the yellow zosterops, known by the white downy ring round the eye.

      A. L. Adams, Wanderings of Naturalist in India 71
   2. 1909

      > It is interesting to watch a Zosterops operating on a pear.

      Blackwood's Magazine August 204/2
   birds
   1. white-eye 1837–
      Any of numerous Old World songbirds of the genus Zosterops and certain other genera of the family Zosteropidae, having greenish upperparts with a…
   2. zosterops 1867–
      Any of the small birds of the genus so named, widely distributed chiefly in tropical and subtropical regions, and characterized by a ring of white…
   3. blight-bird 1870–
      An early settlers' name for a bird belonging to the Australian genus Zosterops.
   4. ringeye 1871–
      Australian and New Zealand. An Australasian white-eye of the genus Zosterops (family Zosteropidae); esp. the grey-backed white-eye (or silvereye), Z.…
   5. wax-eye 1874–
      = silver-eye, n.; cf. zosterops, n.
   6. greeny 1890–
      Australian. Any predominantly green bird, esp. a silvereye of the western subspecies Zosterops lateralis gouldi. Also: (colloquial) a frog.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɒstərɒps/

####

##### 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.

## Frequency

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

zosterops 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 zosterops, n., 1860–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1860 | 0.0007
1870 | 0.0007
1880 | 0.0006
1890 | 0.0005
1900 | 0.0006
1910 | 0.0005
1920 | 0.0006
1930 | 0.0007
1940 | 0.0006
1950 | 0.0007
1960 | 0.0008
1970 | 0.0007
1980 | 0.0006
1990 | 0.0004
2000 | 0.0004
2010 | 0.0004

zosterops, n. was first published in 1921; not fully revised.

zosterops, n. was last modified in December 2024.