zoologist, n.

zoologist
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoologist_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zoologistnoun

## Earlier version

- zoologist in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zoologist mean?

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

### How common is the noun zoologist?

About 0.5occurrences per million words in modern written English

1750 | 0.062
1760 | 0.094
1770 | 0.091
1780 | 0.12
1790 | 0.14
1800 | 0.18
1810 | 0.26
1820 | 0.34
1830 | 0.44
1840 | 0.57
1850 | 0.67
1860 | 0.69
1870 | 0.79
1880 | 0.83
1890 | 0.85
1900 | 0.86
1910 | 0.88
1920 | 0.83
1930 | 0.84
1940 | 0.83
1950 | 0.8
1960 | 0.74
1970 | 0.68
1980 | 0.59
1990 | 0.5
2000 | 0.45
2010 | 0.43

### How is the noun zoologist pronounced?

#### British English

/zuːˈɒlədʒɪst/
zoo-OL-uh-jist
/zəʊˈɒlədʒɪst/
zoh-OL-uh-jist

#### U.S. English

/zuˈɑlədʒəst/
zoo-AH-luh-juhst
/zoʊˈɑlədʒəst/
zoh-AH-luh-juhst

### Where does the noun zoologist come from?

Earliest known use

mid 1600s

The earliest known use of the noun zoologist is in the mid 1600s.

OED's earliest evidence for zoologist is from 1663, in the writing of Robert Boyle, natural philosopher.

zoologist is of multiple origins. Either (i) formed within English, by derivation. Or (ii) a borrowing from Latin, combined with an English element.

Etymons: zoology n., ‑ist suffix; Latin zoologia, ‑ist suffix.

### Nearby entries

1. zoolatrous, adj. 1876–
2. zoolatry, n. 1784–
3. zoolite, n. 1768–
4. zoologer, n. 1663–
5. zoologic, adj. 1766–
6. zoological, adj. & n. 1686–
7. zoological garden, n. 1827–
8. zoologically, adv. 1799–
9. zoologico-, comb. form
10. zoologico-archaeologist, n. 1864
11. zoologist, n.1663–
12. zoologize, v. 1830–
13. zoologizing, n. 1815–
14. zoology, n. 1663–
15. zoom, n. 1917–
16. zoom, v.¹ 1886–
17. Zoom, v.² 2014–
18. zoom, int. 1856–
19. zoomable, adj. 1972–
20. zoomagnetism, n. 1824–
21. zooman, n. 1871–

## Etymology

### Summary

Either (i) formed within English, by derivation. Or (ii) a borrowing from Latin, combined with an English element.
Etymons: zoology n., ‑ist suffix; Latin zoologia, ‑ist suffix.
< zoology n. or its etymon post-classical Latin zoologia + ‑ist suffix.

Compare zoologer n.

## Meaning & use

1. 1663–
   A person who studies animals; an expert or specialist in zoology.
   1. 1663

      > The..liberty of making those Experiments in live Beasts..may enable a Zoologist..to determine divers Pathologicall difficulties.

      R. Boyle, Some Considerations Usefulnesse Experimental Natural Philosophy ii. ii. 46
   2. 1670

      > Nature having, as Zoologists teach us, furnished Ducks and other water-Fowl with a peculiar structure of some vessels about the heart.

      R. Boyle in Philosophical Transactions (Royal Society) vol. 5 2011
   3. 1752

      > This..has been described..under the name of the Mus Africanus Hayopolin dictus. Most of the zoologists have omitted it.

      J. Hill, General Natural History vol. III. 531
   4. 1773

      > Nor have I seen any thing that interested me, as a Zoologist, except an Otter.

      S. Johnson, Letter 21 September (1992) vol. II. 78
   5. 1839

      > The Seladang is supposed by some zoologists to be identical with the Tapir.

      T. J. Newbold, Political & Statistical Account Straits of Malacca vol. I. vii. 435
   6. 1870

      > The proverb says, ‘Ex pede Herculem’; and we have actual experience how the practised zoologist can build up some intricate organization from the sight of its smallest bone.

      J. H. Newman, Essay Grammar of Assent ii. viii. 253
   7. 1910

      > These are the reasons why zoologists and naturalists are anxious to save the whale.

      Weekly Irish Times 8 October 7/4
   8. 1984

      > There were often slight differences between them, which interested the zoologists.

      B. Heinrich, In Patch of Fireweed iii. 44
   9. 2015

      > McGavin, a distinguished zoologist..is devoted to anything that creeps and crawls.

      Times 2 June
   animals
   1. zoologer 1663–
      = zoologist, n.
   2. zoologist 1663–
      A person who studies animals; an expert or specialist in zoology.
   3. brutologist 1674
      One who studies the brutes.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zuːˈɒlədʒɪst/
zoo-OL-uh-jist
/zəʊˈɒlədʒɪst/
zoh-OL-uh-jist

### U.S. English

/zuˈɑlədʒəst/
zoo-AH-luh-juhst
/zoʊˈɑlədʒəst/
zoh-AH-luh-juhst

####

##### 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. 1600s–
   zoologist
2. 1800s
   zöologist
3. 1800s–1900s
   zoölogist

## Frequency

zoologist typically occurs about 0.5 times per million words in modern written English.

zoologist is in frequency band 4, which contains words occurring between 0.1 and 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 zoologist, n., 1750–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1750 | 0.062
1760 | 0.094
1770 | 0.091
1780 | 0.12
1790 | 0.14
1800 | 0.18
1810 | 0.26
1820 | 0.34
1830 | 0.44
1840 | 0.57
1850 | 0.67
1860 | 0.69
1870 | 0.79
1880 | 0.83
1890 | 0.85
1900 | 0.86
1910 | 0.88
1920 | 0.83
1930 | 0.84
1940 | 0.83
1950 | 0.8
1960 | 0.74
1970 | 0.68
1980 | 0.59
1990 | 0.5
2000 | 0.45
2010 | 0.43

### Frequency of zoologist, n., 2017–2024

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Modern frequency series are derived from a corpus of 20 billion words, covering the period from 2017 to the present. The corpus is mainly compiled from online news sources, and covers all major varieties of World English.

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 corpus.

Period | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
2017 | 0.16
2018 | 0.16
2019 | 0.16
2020 | 0.16
2021 | 0.16
2022 | 0.15
2023 | 0.15
2024 | 0.14

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. marine zoologist, n. 1862–
   A person engaged in or expert in marine zoology.

1. palaeozoologist, n. 1897–
   An expert in or student of palaeozoology.

1. archaeozoologist, n. 1938–
   a. An expert or specialist in the study of…

zoologist, n. was revised in June 2017.

zoologist, n. was last modified in July 2023.