zooninghttp://www.oed.com/dictionary/zooning_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_usezooning, n.
Revised 2017

zooningnoun

Chiefly U.S. regional (southern and south Midland).
  1. 1.
    1885–
    The action of making a buzzing, humming, or droning sound; the sound itself; an instance of this. Now rare.
    1. 1885
      The whispering, tinkling, hissing, booming, muttering, ‘zooning’ around him are full of mysterious hints and suggestions.
      Idaho Avalanche 19 September 1/6
    2. 1888
      The musicians..crooning out that nameless, tuneless tune, like the crurr-m of a locust, like the zooning of the wind on the beach.
      Daily Picayune (New Orleans) 5 August 9/4
    3. 1893
      As rapid motion is necessary to zuning, a man, horse, locomotive, or almost anything that goes along swiftly, is said to zune.
      H. A. Shands, Some Peculiarities of Speech in Mississippi 69
    4. 1910
      In the stillness the zooning of bees among the rocks came to their ears like distant music.
      D. Coolidge, Hidden Water xii. 232
    5. 1922
      The zoonings and ploppings of blundering winged intruders.
      Outward Bound November 137/1
  2. 2.
    1950–
    Chiefly in African American usage: a style of preaching characterized by the repetition of words and phrases with tonal variation, typically accompanied by responses from the congregation. Now somewhat rare and chiefly historical.
    1. 1950
      The prayer maker is too full for any utterance which is not colored tonally by his emotions. This is called ‘Zooning’.
      W. L. James in Phylon vol. 16 i. 19
    2. 1956
      The preacher may use the ‘zooning’ style (field-holler and cry) or the ‘gravy’ style (work-song grunt) or a combination of both.
      M. W. Stearns, Story of Jazz xii. 130
    3. 1977
      The ‘cries’..may come relatively early in the [church] service and show the importance of tonal phenomena in the Black sermon. There is even a term for one such practice: zooning, ‘crying (a word or phrase) over and over with variations’.
      J. L. Dillard, Lexicon of Black English iii. 55
    4. 2000
      I knew that ‘zooning’ referred to a particularly musical form of preaching.
      G. Hinson, Fire in my Bones 282

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

zooning, n. was revised in June 2017.

zooning, n. was last modified in July 2023.