zinc-powder, n.

zinc-powder
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zinc-powder_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1921; not fully revised

# zinc-powdernoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zinc-powder mean?

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

#### Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

### How common is the noun zinc-powder?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1870 | 0.0026
1880 | 0.0023
1890 | 0.0019
1900 | 0.0016
1910 | 0.0012
1920 | 0.0011
1930 | 0.0005
1940 | 0.0002
1950 | 0.00009
1960 | 0.00009
1970 | 0.0001
1980 | 0.0001
1990 | 0.0001
2000 | 0.0001
2010 | 0.0001

### Where does the noun zinc-powder come from?

Earliest known use

1880s

The earliest known use of the noun zinc-powder is in the 1880s.

OED's only evidence for zinc-powder is from 1881, in Journal of Chemical Society.

### Nearby entries

1. zincode, n. 1839–
2. zincograph, n. 1888–
3. zincograph, v. 1865–
4. zincographer, n. 1839–
5. zincographic, adj. 1850–
6. zincography, n. 1834–
7. zincoid, n. 1842–
8. zinc orange, n. 1918–
9. zincous, adj. 1842–
10. zinc-plate, n. 1823–
11. zinc-powder, n.1881–
12. zinc roof, n. 1883–
13. zinc spar, n. 1796–
14. zinc-sponge, n. 1902–
15. zinc sulphide, n. 1851–
16. zinc white, n. 1847–
17. zincy, adj. 1757–
18. zinc yellow, n. 1847–
19. zindabad, int. & n. 1930–
20. zindan, n. 1844–
21. Zindikite, n. 1694–

## Meaning & use

1. 1881–
   = zinc-dust n.
   1. 1881

      > Two grams of the zinc powder are weighed out.

      Journal of Chemical Society vol. 39 462
   painting and drawing
   1. lac 1558–1820
      Originally: any of various red paints or pigments made from organic and inorganic materials other than lac. In later use more generally: a pigment…
   2. purpurin 1558–1775
      Powdered brass or bronze mixed with liquid and used as a colouring material. Obsolete.
   3. colourish 1598–1691
      A colouring matter used to give the appearance of gold. Also figurative.
   4. earth 1598–
      = earth colour, n. A.1. Frequently with distinguishing word. Cf. earth pigment, n.
   5. watercolour 1598–
      A type of artists' paint made with a water-soluble binder and thinned with water rather than oil (frequently in plural). Also as a mass noun…
   6. earth colour 1658–
      A pigment obtained from an earth (earth, n.¹ IV.16), as an ochre or umber.
   7. encaustic 1662
      A pigment or glaze applied by ‘burning in’.
   8. lake 1684–
      In extended sense: A pigment obtained by the combination of animal, vegetable, or coal-tar colouring matter with some metallic oxide or earth…
   9. virgin tint 1706–
      A brilliant tint, such as appears clearly to be of a given colour, without shading closer to white or black; (also) a tint made up of only two…
   10. mosaic gold 1746–
       A gold-coloured metallic powder, consisting mainly of tin disulfide, used in decorating wood, etc. Also called aurum mosaicum, aurum musivum, bronze p…
   11. bronze 1753–
       (More fully bronze powder: see compounds C.2): A metallic powder (usually brass, copper, or tin) used in painting, printing, and the like.
   12. gold bronze 1769–
       A metallic powder containing or resembling gold, used in paints and other decorative coatings (cf. bronze, n. 4).
   13. cake colour 1784–
       Paint or pigment prepared or sold in the form of a cake.
   14. musive gold 1796
       = mosaic gold, n. 2.
   15. sap-colour 1816–
       (See quot. 1816).
   16. repaint 1827–
       A paint used in repainting; a layer of colour added in repainting.
   17. moist colour 1842–
       A watercolour paint in the form of a soft paste.
   18. bronze powder 1846–
       = bronze, n. 4.
   19. wax-colour 1854–
       a. A pigment ground with wax for encaustic painting; b. the yellow colour of wax.
   20. wax pigment 1854–
       A pigment prepared with wax.
   21. bitumen 1855–
       A pigment prepared from asphalt.
   22. alkali blue 1873–
       Any of various blue dyes which are applied or remain fast in alkaline conditions; spec. any of a series of sodium salts of phenylated rosaniline…
   23. chrome garnet 1876–
       A pigment prepared from basic chromate of lead.
   24. zinc-dust 1877–
       Zinc in the form of fine powder (often mixed with zinc oxide and other impurities), obtained by grinding, or in the extraction of zinc from its…
   25. zinc-powder 1881–
       = zinc-dust, n.
   26. terra nera 1882–
       Used, with qualifying adjectives, to form the names of medicinal and other earths, boles, and the like… See quot.
   27. earth pigment 1900–
       = earth colour, n. A.1.
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. motey 1353–1510
      An earth (perhaps similar to ochre) used as a pigment; (perhaps) a pigment which has a speckled or mottled appearance when applied.
   2. green earth 1634–
      Any of various greenish, clayey materials; spec. †(a) crude borax (obsolete); (b) the pigment terre verte; (c) Mineralogy the mineral glauconite.
   3. terre-verte 1658–
      A soft green earth of varying composition used as a pigment; esp. that obtained from Italy (Verona), Cyprus, and France; = celadonite, n. or green…
   4. Terra Sienna 1760–
      = Siena, n. Also attributive.
   5. Siena 1787–
      (Usually written Sienna.) A ferruginous earth used as a pigment in oil and water-colour painting (called burnt sienna when it has been exposed to a…
   6. gamboge yellow 1807–
      A yellow pigment of which gamboge is an ingredient; the colour of such a pigment.
   7. zinc white 1847–
      Oxide of zinc used as a white paint.
   8. zinc-powder 1881–
      = zinc-dust, n.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

zinc-powder typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zinc-powder is in frequency band 1, which contains words occurring fewer than 0.001 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 zinc-powder, n., 1870–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1870 | 0.0026
1880 | 0.0023
1890 | 0.0019
1900 | 0.0016
1910 | 0.0012
1920 | 0.0011
1930 | 0.0005
1940 | 0.0002
1950 | 0.00009
1960 | 0.00009
1970 | 0.0001
1980 | 0.0001
1990 | 0.0001
2000 | 0.0001
2010 | 0.0001

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

zinc, n. was first published in 1921; not fully revised.