zoningadjective
Factsheet
Where does the adjective zoning come from?
Earliest known use
1850s
The earliest known use of the adjective zoning is in the 1850s.
OED's earliest evidence for zoning is from 1853, in the writing of Andrew Smith, army medical officer and naturalist.
How common is the adjective zoning?
| 1890 | 0.0025 |
| 1900 | 0.0039 |
| 1910 | 0.0054 |
| 1920 | 0.0086 |
| 1930 | 0.013 |
| 1940 | 0.021 |
| 1950 | 0.026 |
| 1960 | 0.028 |
| 1970 | 0.031 |
| 1980 | 0.033 |
| 1990 | 0.033 |
| 2000 | 0.034 |
| 2010 | 0.028 |
Nearby entries
- zone plate, n.1890–
- zoner, n.1962–
- zone-refine, v.1962–
- zone refiner, n.1959–
- zone refining, n.1952–
- zone therapy, n.1915–
- zone time, n.1908–
- Zonian, n.1910–
- zonic, adj.1797–
- zoning, n.a1821–
- zoning, adj.1853–
- zonite, n.1860–
- zonitic, adj.1888–
- zonk, v.1950–
- zonk, int.1949–
- zonked, adj.1959–
- zonkey, n.1953–
- zonking, adj.1958–
- zonky, adj.1972–
- zono-, comb. form
- zonochlorite, n.1872–
Meaning & use
- 1853–See zone v.Stressed as ˈzoning.
- 1853
When first they clasped a Son of God..In zoning heaven of their milky arms.
A. Smith, Life Drama ii - 1865
When the zoning eve has died.
Lord Tennyson, On a Mourner v
- circumjacent1490–Lying or situated around, adjacent on all sides, surrounding.
- circumstant1545–1666Standing around, surrounding, circumjacent.
- circumvoisin1548–1641Neighbouring on all sides.
- environing?a1560–That environs, surrounds, or envelops.
- encompassing1571–That encompasses.
- ambient1572–That surrounds or encircles; that lies on all sides of something; encompassing.
- succingent1578–1684Engirdling, embracing.
- embracing1590–That encircles, surrounds, or encloses.
- circling1594–Encircling.
- girdling1598–That girdles or surrounds.
- circumdant1600–44Surrounding.
- rounding1600–poetic. Surrounding; encircling. Now rare.
- all round?1611–That completely encircles; including or affecting everything in a given circle or on all sides.
- circumferent1620–52Forming the circumference, encircling, encompassing; travelling around.
- circumsistent1625Surrounding.
- circuiting1632–That circuits, goes round, goes in or on a circuit.
- circulating1632–That circulates, in various senses.
- encircling1632–That encircles.
- surrounding1637–That is (or are) around; encompassing, circumjacent.
- begirting1645–
- circumambient1648–Going or extending round; surrounding, encompassing, environing.
- circumstantial1650Standing around, surrounding. Obsolete.
- girding1658–That girds, in senses of the verb.
- skirtingc1735–That skirts, in senses of the verb.
- entwining1737–That entwines.
- circumadjacent1780–Lying immediately around.
- belting1808–Encircling, surrounding, girdling. Now somewhat rare.
- engirdling1843–That engirdles, surrounds, encloses.
- encyclic1850–Encircling.
- engirding1852–
- zoning1853–
- roundaboutc1860Nautical. Of rope: that goes all the way round. Obsolete. rare.
- begirding1877–That begirds or encloses all round.
- wraparound1957–gen. That surrounds or encompasses.
Frequency
zoning typically occurs about 0.03 times per million words in modern written English.
zoning is in frequency band 3, which contains words occurring between 0.01 and 0.1 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands
Frequency of zoning, adj., 1890–2010
* 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 |
|---|---|
| 1890 | 0.0025 |
| 1900 | 0.0039 |
| 1910 | 0.0054 |
| 1920 | 0.0086 |
| 1930 | 0.013 |
| 1940 | 0.021 |
| 1950 | 0.026 |
| 1960 | 0.028 |
| 1970 | 0.031 |
| 1980 | 0.033 |
| 1990 | 0.033 |
| 2000 | 0.034 |
| 2010 | 0.028 |