Zoomar, n.

zoomar
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoomar_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# Zoomarnoun

## Earlier version

- Zoomar in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun Zoomar mean?

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

### How common is the noun Zoomar?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1940 | 0.013
1950 | 0.011
1960 | 0.0097
1970 | 0.0085
1980 | 0.0085
1990 | 0.0046
2000 | 0.0028
2010 | 0.0018

### How is the noun Zoomar pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzuːmɑː/
ZOO-mar

#### U.S. English

/ˈzuˌmɑr/
ZOO-mar

### Where does the noun Zoomar come from?

Earliest known use

1940s

The earliest known use of the noun Zoomar is in the 1940s.

OED's earliest evidence for Zoomar is from 1946, in Journal Soc. Motion Picture Engineers.

Zoomar is formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: zoom n.

### Nearby entries

1. zoom, n. 1917–
2. zoom, v.¹ 1886–
3. Zoom, v.² 2014–
4. zoom, int. 1856–
5. zoomable, adj. 1972–
6. zoomagnetism, n. 1824–
7. zooman, n. 1871–
8. zoomancy, n. 1888–
9. zoomania, n. 1807–
10. zoomantist, n. 1861
11. Zoomar, n.1946–
12. zoomechanical, adj. 1897
13. zoomechanics, n. 1888–1903
14. zoomelanin, n. 1858–
15. zoometric, adj. 1892–
16. zoometry, n. 1878–
17. zooming, n. 1892–
18. zooming, adj. 1904–
19. zoom lens, n. 1932–
20. zoomorph, n. 1883–
21. zoomorphic, adj. 1849–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by derivation.
Etymon: zoom n.
< zoom n. + a second element probably ultimately of arbitrary origin…
< zoom n. + a second element probably ultimately of arbitrary origin.

### Notes

The lens was developed by Frank G. Back (1902–83), Austrian-born U.S. engineer, in 1946. The ‑ar element in its name may have been borrowed < ‑ar (probably an arbitrary formation) in the German proprietary names of other lenses produced by the same manufacturer, Voigtländer, e.g. German Heliar (1902 or earlier), Helomar (1914 or earlier), Voigtar (1927 or earlier); however, German Zoomar is apparently not attested until later (1959 or earlier).

## Meaning & use

Photography. Now historical.

1. 1946–
   More fully Zoomar lens. A type of zoom lens made in the United States.
   1. 1946

      > Optical principle of Zoomar lens.

      Journal Soc. Motion Picture Engineers vol. 47 465 (caption)
   2. 1961

      > The first zoom lens for a miniature camera, the Voigtländer Zoomar, gave focal lengths from 36 mm to 82 mm.

      A. L. M. Sowerby, Dictionary of Photography (ed. 19) 712
   3. 1971

      > Rudy had a zoomar lens and got as close as he could for greater clarity.

      D. E. Westlake, I gave at Office (1972) 68
   4. 2010

      > Seen through the distorting Zoomar lens the goal posts seemed half a mile away.

      Antioch Review vol. 68 440
   photography historical
   1. Zoomar 1946–
      More fully Zoomar lens. A type of zoom lens made in the United States.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzuːmɑː/
ZOO-mar

### U.S. English

/ˈzuˌmɑr/
ZOO-mar

####

##### 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

Also with lower-case initial.

## Frequency

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

Zoomar 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 Zoomar, n., 1940–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1940 | 0.013
1950 | 0.011
1960 | 0.0097
1970 | 0.0085
1980 | 0.0085
1990 | 0.0046
2000 | 0.0028
2010 | 0.0018

Zoomar, n. was revised in June 2017.

Zoomar, n. was last modified in July 2023.