zoon, int.

zoon
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoon_int%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zooninterjection

## Factsheet

### What does the interjection zoon mean?

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

This word is used in U.S. English.

### How common is the interjection zoon?

About 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1860 | 0.019
1870 | 0.017
1880 | 0.016
1890 | 0.016
1900 | 0.016
1910 | 0.014
1920 | 0.014
1930 | 0.014
1940 | 0.014
1950 | 0.014
1960 | 0.015
1970 | 0.015
1980 | 0.015
1990 | 0.014
2000 | 0.014
2010 | 0.014

### How is the interjection zoon pronounced?

#### British English

/zuːn/
zoon

#### U.S. English

/zun/
zoon

### Where does the interjection zoon come from?

Earliest known use

1860s

The earliest known use of the interjection zoon is in the 1860s.

OED's earliest evidence for zoon is from 1863, in Once a Week: an illustrated miscellany of literature, art, science, and popular information.

zoon is an imitative or expressive formation.

### Nearby entries

1. zoomorphic, adj. 1849–
2. zoomorphism, n. 1822–
3. zoomorphize, v. 1940–
4. zoomorphizing, n. 1895–
5. zoomorphosed, adj. 1955–
6. zoom shot, n. 1930–
7. zoomy, adj. 1931–
8. zoomythic, adj. 1889–
9. zoon, n. 1851–1905
10. zoon, v. 1880–
11. zoon, int.1863–
12. -zoon, comb. form
13. zoonate, n. 1798–1857
14. zoonerythrin, n. 1882–
15. zoonic, adj. 1798–1853
16. zooning, n. 1885–
17. Zoonist, adj. 1890–97
18. zoonite, n. 1838–
19. zoonitic, adj. 1860–91
20. zoonomic, adj. 1836–
21. zoonomical, adj. 1800–

## Etymology

### Summary

An imitative or expressive formation.
Imitative.

Compare earlier zoom int.

## Meaning & use

Chiefly U.S. Now historical and rare.

1. 1863–
   Representing a buzzing, humming, or droning sound.
   1. 1863

      > All at once ‘twang-twang’ goes a harp; ‘zoon-zoon’ goes a bass violin.

      Once a Week 25 July 126/1
   2. 1897

      > Nick listened a moment, but heard only the clamor of voices inside, and the zoon, zoon, zoon of the viol.

      J. Bennett, Master Skylark xx. 174
   3. 1911

      > Zoon—Zoon—Zoon! O Lord! listen to that shell.

      M. Johnston, Long Roll xv. 197
   4. 1978

      > The old man [sc. Uncle Remus] is disconcerted..by streetcars that go ‘zoon’.

      R. B. Bickley, Joel Chandler Harris iii. 88
   U.S. English historical
   1. zoon 1863–
      Representing a buzzing, humming, or droning sound.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zuːn/
zoon

### U.S. English

/zun/
zoon

####

##### 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. Also reduplicated.

## Frequency

zoon typically occurs about 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zoon 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 data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.

### Frequency of zoon, int., 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 | 0.019
1870 | 0.017
1880 | 0.016
1890 | 0.016
1900 | 0.016
1910 | 0.014
1920 | 0.014
1930 | 0.014
1940 | 0.014
1950 | 0.014
1960 | 0.015
1970 | 0.015
1980 | 0.015
1990 | 0.014
2000 | 0.014
2010 | 0.014

Originally published as part of the entry for zoon, v.

zoon, int. was revised in June 2017.

zoon, int. was last modified in July 2023.