Zebedist, n.

zebedist
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zebedist_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# † Zebedistnoun

## Earlier version

- Zebedist in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun Zebedist mean?

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

This word is now obsolete. It is only recorded in the late 1500s.

### Where does the noun Zebedist come from?

Earliest known use

late 1500s

The only known use of the noun Zebedist is in the late 1500s.

OED's only evidence for Zebedist is from 1574, in Life 70. Archbishopp Canterbury.

From a proper name, combined with an English element.

Etymons: proper name Zebedee, ‑ist suffix.

### Nearby entries

1. zeal-pretending, adj. 1652–69
2. zeal-quenching, adj. 1688–1877
3. zeal-scoffing, adj. 1605
4. zeal-transported, adj. a1644–59
5. zeal-worthy, adj. 1797
6. zea maize, n. 1811–
7. zearalanol, n. 1966–
8. zearalenone, n. 1966–
9. zeatin, n. 1963–
10. zeaxanthin, n. 1929–
11. Zebedist, n.1574
12. zebra, n. 1597–
13. zebra caterpillar, n. 1841–
14. zebra crossing, n. 1934–
15. zebra danio, n. 1917–
16. zebraed, adj. 1806–
17. zebra finch, n. 1868–
18. zebrafish, n. 1771–
19. zebraic, adj. 1858–
20. zebra marking, n. 1854–
21. zebra moray, n. 1933–

## Etymology

### Summary

From a proper name, combined with an English element.
Etymons: proper name Zebedee, ‑ist suffix.
< Zebedee (post-classical Latin Zebedaeus (Vulgate), Hellenistic Greek Ζεβεδαῖος (New Testament)), the name of the father of the apostles James and John + ‑ist suffix…
< Zebedee (post-classical Latin Zebedaeus (Vulgate), Hellenistic Greek Ζεβεδαῖος (New Testament)), the name of the father of the apostles James and John + ‑ist suffix.

### Notes

It is unclear which Hebrew or Aramaic name underlies Zebedee's name; perhaps Hebrew Zĕḇadyāh, which occurs in the Old Testament and Hebrew Scriptures as the name of nine different individuals.

## Meaning & use

Obsolete.

1. 1574
   A person who seeks advancement or high office.
   Apparently an isolated use.
   With allusion to Matthew 20:20–2, in which the mother of the sons of Zebedee (the apostles James and John), asks Jesus to grant them the favour of sitting at his right and left hand in God's kingdom, a request which meets with a rebuke from Jesus and indignation on the part of the other apostles.
   1. 1574

      > Like a pore blinde zebediste to aske he knoweth not what with such a sturre to make suite for the retaining off his place, to sitt on the righthande, or lefte hand off Iesus Christe in this worlde.

      translation of Life 70. Archbishopp Canterbury To Reader sig. Eiij

## Forms

### Variant forms

1. 1500s
   Zebediste

Zebedist, n. was revised in June 2018.

Zebedist, n. was last modified in March 2025.