zoophilous, adj.

zoophilous
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoophilous_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zoophilousadjective

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zoophilous mean?

There are two meanings listed in OED's entry for the adjective zoophilous. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

zoophilous has developed meanings and uses in subjects including

ecology (1880s) plants (1880s) life sciences (1920s)

### How common is the adjective zoophilous?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1890 | 0.0006
1900 | 0.0011
1910 | 0.0029
1920 | 0.0032
1930 | 0.0036
1940 | 0.0042
1950 | 0.0049
1960 | 0.0051
1970 | 0.0049
1980 | 0.0034
1990 | 0.0032
2000 | 0.0032
2010 | 0.0027

### How is the adjective zoophilous pronounced?

#### British English

/zuːˈɒfᵻləs/
zoo-OFF-uh-luhss
/zəʊˈɒfᵻləs/
zoh-OFF-uh-luhss

#### U.S. English

/zuˈɑfələs/
zoo-AH-fuh-luhss
/zoʊˈɑfələs/
zoh-AH-fuh-luhss

### Where does the adjective zoophilous come from?

Earliest known use

1880s

The earliest known use of the adjective zoophilous is in the 1880s.

OED's earliest evidence for zoophilous is from 1881, in American Naturalist.

zoophilous is formed within English, by compounding.

Etymons: zoo- comb. form, ‑philous comb. form.

### Nearby entries

1. zoophagan, n. & adj. 1835–
2. zoophagic, adj. 1903–
3. zoophagous, adj. 1788–
4. zoophagy, n. 1849–
5. zoophile, n. 1885–
6. zoophilia, n. 1894–
7. zoophilic, adj. 1884–
8. zoophilism, n. 1867–
9. zoophilist, n. 1829–
10. zoophilite, n. 1879–
11. zoophilous, adj.1881–
12. zoophily, n. 1830–
13. zoophobia, n. 1888–
14. zoophysical, adj. 1820–
15. zoophysics, n. 1887–
16. zoophysiology, n. 1803–
17. zoophytal, adj. 1756–
18. zoophyte, n. 1606–
19. zoophytic, adj. 1808–
20. zoophytical, adj. 1779–
21. zoophytish, adj. 1854–80

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by compounding.
Etymons: zoo- comb. form, ‑philous comb. form.
< zoo- comb. form + ‑philous comb. form, probably originally as an alteration of zoidiophilous adj.…
< zoo- comb. form + ‑philous comb. form, probably originally as an alteration of zoidiophilous adj.

### Notes

With sense 1 compare earlier entomophilous adj., ornithophilous adj.
In sense 2 after German zoophil (1922 in the source translated in quot. 1922); compare also French zoophile, adjective (1922 or earlier; earlier as noun: see zoophile n.).

## Meaning & use

1. 1.
   1881–
   Ecology. Of a plant or flower: pollinated by animals. In later use also (of a fruit or seed): dispersed by animals. Also: of, relating to, or of the nature of this type of pollination or dispersal. Cf. entomophilous adj., ornithophilous adj.
   1. 1881

      > Nectar..accumulates in the basal part of the corolla, and offers a considerable amount of tempting food to nectar-loving creatures, and this, advertised by the brilliant scarlet of the calyx and corolla, clearly proclaims the flowers to be zoöphilous, or adapted to fertilization by animals of some kind.

      American Naturalist vol. 15 265
   2. 1893

      > But zoophilous methods, or pollination by animals, are among flowering plants the most frequent.

      H. G. Wells, Text-book Biol.: Part II 52
   3. 1908

      > The zoophilous fruit appealing..to a constituency of birds and mammals, must adapt itself to the local fauna.

      Journal of Botany, Brit. & Foreign vol. 46 84
   4. 1982

      > Fifty-three species of zoophilous plants occurred in this meadow.

      Oikos vol. 39 242/1
   5. 2004

      > Unless such seeds are carried for long distances by animals in the jungle (zoophilous dispersal), rubber seeds in upland areas get dispersed over a few meters.

      Econ. Botany vol. 58 554/2
   6. 2015

      > Zoophilous pollination evolved through associations of flowers and insects.

      J. Boenigk et al., Biodiversity & Earth History ii. 136/1
   ecology plants
   1. zoophilous 1881–
      Ecology. Of a plant or flower: pollinated by animals. In later use also (of a fruit or seed): dispersed by animals. Also: of, relating to, or of…
   2. zoochorous 1904–
      Of a plant: having seeds, spores, etc., dispersed by animals. Also: designating this mode of dispersal.
   3. hydrochorous 1905–
      See hydrochore, n.
   4. myrmecochorous 1908–
      Of a seed or fruit: dispersed by ants. Of a plant: producing seeds or fruits of this kind.
   5. hydrochoric 1940–
      See hydrochore, n.
   View in Historical Thesaurus
2. 2.
   1922–
   Biology. Of a parasitic organism: that prefers to feed, live, or grow on animals rather than humans. Also: of, relating to, or characteristic of such organisms. Cf. zoophilic adj. 3.
   1. 1922

      > A criticism of the theory of ‘misanthropic’ or ‘zoophilous’ [German ‘zoophilen’] anophelines.

      translation of E. Martini in Review of Applied Entomology B. vol. 10 228 (heading)
   2. 1949

      > The zoophilous habits of C [ulex] quinquefasciatus will keep some of them from entering houses.

      Public Health Rep. (U.S. Public Health Service) vol. 64 870
   3. 1996

      > The females of a great majority of mosquito species are zoophilous.

      E. D. Walker & H. D. Newson in R. W. Merritt & K. W. Cummins, Introd. Aquatic Insects North Amer. (ed. 3) xxiv. 572/1
   4. 2002

      > More than 100 species of zoophilous moths have been observed feeding on lachrymal secretions, primarily in Thailand, Malaysia, and other parts of Southeast Asia.

      G. R. Mullen in G. R. Mullen & L. A. Durden, Med. & Vet. Entomology xviii. 375/1
   life sciences

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zuːˈɒfᵻləs/
zoo-OFF-uh-luhss
/zəʊˈɒfᵻləs/
zoh-OFF-uh-luhss

### U.S. English

/zuˈɑfələs/
zoo-AH-fuh-luhss
/zoʊˈɑfələs/
zoh-AH-fuh-luhss

####

##### 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

See zoo- comb. form and ‑philous comb. form.

## Frequency

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

zoophilous 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 zoophilous, 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 | 0.0006
1900 | 0.0011
1910 | 0.0029
1920 | 0.0032
1930 | 0.0036
1940 | 0.0042
1950 | 0.0049
1960 | 0.0051
1970 | 0.0049
1980 | 0.0034
1990 | 0.0032
2000 | 0.0032
2010 | 0.0027

Originally published as part of the entry for zoophile, n.

zoophilous, adj. was revised in June 2017.

zoophilous, adj. was last modified in September 2024.