Zohar, n.

zohar
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zohar_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1986; not fully revised

# Zoharnoun

## Earlier version

- Zohar in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun Zohar mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun Zohar. 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 Zohar?

About 0.6occurrences per million words in modern written English

1750 | 0.14
1760 | 0.11
1770 | 0.11
1780 | 0.082
1790 | 0.089
1800 | 0.084
1810 | 0.1
1820 | 0.1
1830 | 0.096
1840 | 0.094
1850 | 0.093
1860 | 0.093
1870 | 0.12
1880 | 0.16
1890 | 0.17
1900 | 0.18
1910 | 0.2
1920 | 0.2
1930 | 0.2
1940 | 0.27
1950 | 0.33
1960 | 0.39
1970 | 0.48
1980 | 0.58
1990 | 0.64
2000 | 0.69
2010 | 0.74

### How is the noun Zohar pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzəʊhɑː/
ZOH-har

### Where does the noun Zohar come from?

Earliest known use

late 1600s

The earliest known use of the noun Zohar is in the late 1600s.

OED's earliest evidence for Zohar is from 1682, in the writing of William Payne, Church of England clergyman.

Zohar is a borrowing from Hebrew.

Etymons: Hebrew ṣōhar.

### Nearby entries

1. zodiacal, adj. 1576–
2. zodiac line, n. 1590
3. zodiac ring, n. 1895–
4. zodiographer, n. 1650
5. zoea, n. 1828–
6. zoeal, adj.?1870–
7. zoetrope, n. 1866–
8. zographer, n. 1570
9. zography, n. 1570
10. zograscope, n. 1753–
11. Zohar, n.1682–
12. zoic, adj. 1863–
13. -zoic, comb. form¹
14. -zoic, comb. form²
15. zoid, n. 1856–
16. zoid, adj. 1864–
17. zoidiophilous, adj. 1872–
18. zoidogamous, adj. 1899–
19. Zoilean, adj. 1846–
20. Zoilism, n. 1609–
21. Zoilist, n. 1594–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Hebrew.
Etymon: Hebrew ṣōhar.
< post-biblical Hebrew ṣōhar, lit. ‘light, splendour’.

## Meaning & use

1. 1682–
   The major text of Jewish Cabbalism, in the form of an allegorical interpretation of the Pentateuch.
   1. 1682

      > A studying Judiciary Schemes, and fancifull Cabalas, and mysterious zoars.

      W. Payne, Learning & Knowledge 12
   2. 1837

      > The work called Zohar is written in Chaldaic, and develops the mysterious science called Cabala.

      British & Foreign Review vol. V. 419
   3. 1843

      > He knew more Zohar and more secrets than the wisest of them.

      G. Borrow, Bible in Spain vol. III. xv. 295
   4. 1888

      > The principal work for the study of the Cabbalah is the Zohar, which is written in a very lofty style in the Syrian language.

      J. C. Murray, translation of S. Maimon, Autobiography xiv. 95
   5. 1932

      > Although they derived their inspiration from the same source—Zohar and Kabbala—Ashkenazi and Sepharadi mysticism inevitably took different directions.

      A. Bension, Zohar i. 11
   6. 1941

      > A Tel-Avivian scholar, Reuben Margulies, has begun to publish an annotated edition of the Zohar.

      G. G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism 384
   7. 1965

      > Ximeno had given Dr. Abulafia a manuscript of the Zohar, the arcane book of Kabbalism.

      J. A. Michener, Source (1966) 662
   8. 1978

      > There stood on our shelves volumes of the Zohar.., and other cabalistic works.

      I. B. Singer, Shosha i. 8
   Judaism
   1. Zohar 1682–
      The major text of Jewish Cabbalism, in the form of an allegorical interpretation of the Pentateuch.
   2. temurah 1902–
      In cabalistic phraseology, a systematic replacement of the letters of a word with other letters in order to find the hidden meaning of events…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzəʊhɑː/
ZOH-har

####

##### 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.

####

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

Also 1600s zoar.

## Frequency

Zohar typically occurs about 0.6 times per million words in modern written English.

Zohar 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 Zohar, 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 | 0.14
1760 | 0.11
1770 | 0.11
1780 | 0.082
1790 | 0.089
1800 | 0.084
1810 | 0.1
1820 | 0.1
1830 | 0.096
1840 | 0.094
1850 | 0.093
1860 | 0.093
1870 | 0.12
1880 | 0.16
1890 | 0.17
1900 | 0.18
1910 | 0.2
1920 | 0.2
1930 | 0.2
1940 | 0.27
1950 | 0.33
1960 | 0.39
1970 | 0.48
1980 | 0.58
1990 | 0.64
2000 | 0.69
2010 | 0.74

Zohar, n. was first published in 1986; not fully revised.

Zohar, n. was last modified in December 2024.