zac, n.

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

# zacnoun

## Earlier version

- zac in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zac mean?

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

This word is used in Australian English.

#### 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 zac?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1890 | 0.0096
1900 | 0.01
1910 | 0.0097
1920 | 0.0097
1930 | 0.009
1940 | 0.0088
1950 | 0.0091
1960 | 0.0087
1970 | 0.0074
1980 | 0.0073
1990 | 0.0069
2000 | 0.0067
2010 | 0.0062

### How is the noun zac pronounced?

#### British English

/zak/
zack

#### U.S. English

/zæk/
zack

#### Australian English

/zæk/

### Where does the noun zac come from?

Earliest known use

1890s

The earliest known use of the noun zac is in the 1890s.

OED's earliest evidence for zac is from 1898, in the Bulletin (Sydney).

zac is of unknown origin.

### Nearby entries

1. 999, n. 1937–
2. Z, n. Old English–
3. 'Z, adj.
4. za, n. 1968–
5. zaatar, n. 1917–
6. zabaglione, n. 1899–
7. zabernism, n. 1916–21
8. zabernize, v. 1914
9. zabra, n. 1523–
10. zabuton, n. 1879–
11. zac, n.1898–
12. 'zackly | 'zactly, adv. 1886–
13. zad, n. 1669–
14. Zadokite, n. & adj. 1910–
15. zadruga, n. 1887–
16. zaffre | zaffer, n. 1662–
17. zaftig, adj. 1921–
18. zafu, n. 1965–
19. zag, n., adv., & v. 1793–
20. zagaie | zagaye, n. 1590–1698
21. Zaghlulist, n. & adj. 1921–

## Etymology

### Summary

Of unknown origin.
Origin unknown.

## Meaning & use

Australian slang.

1. 1898–
   A sixpence.
   1. 1898

      > 6d., a ‘zack’.

      Bulletin (Sydney) 1 October 14
   2. 1924

      > Zack, sixpence.

      Truth (Sydney) 27 April 6
   3. 1941

      > ‘Only one, then,’ I said. ‘We'll only have one more, so we'll make it a sixpence in.’ ‘Don't worry about the zac,’ said Tom.

      Coast to Coast 213
   4. 1952

      > Arthur spent the break losing bobs and tanners while the tall Australian reckoned his profits in dieners and zaks.

      M. Tripp, Faith is Windsock ii. 29
   5. 1962

      > And all you get for it is a zack.

      John o' London's 8 March 229/2
   6. 1966

      > The zack, now the 5c piece, is in such demand that very often its scarcity makes one wonder if it is gradually going out of circulation.

      Telegraph (Brisbane) 13 October 13/2
   7. 1966

      > Two taps with an improvised hammer and anvil, a two bob and a zac.

      P. Mathers, Trap ii. 31
   8. 1977

      > When it comes to unique competitions the people of outback Winton reckon they're the full quid—and you can bet your last zac or traybit on it.

      Sunday Sun (Brisbane) 1 May 16
   coins and banknotes Australian English colloquial and slang
   1. tester 1560–
      A name for the teston, n. of Henry VIII, esp. as debased and depreciated; subsequently a colloquial or slang term for a sixpence.
   2. half-shilling 1561–
      half-shilling, quarter-shilling, Tudor coins of the value of 6d. and 3d. respectively.
   3. teston 1577–1601
      A name for the sixpenny piece; = tester, n.³
   4. mill sixpence 1592–1639
      A silver sixpence of a type made using the mill machinery at the Royal Mint in London between 1561 and 1571.
   5. crinklepouch 1593
      A sixpence.
   6. sixpence a1616–
      Historical. A British silver (subsequently cupro-nickel) coin worth six pennies.
   7. testril a1616
      A sixpence.
   8. pig a1640–1916
      slang (originally cant). A sixpence. Obsolete.
   9. sice 1660–
      slang. Sixpence.
   10. Simon 1699–1860
       slang. A sixpence.
   11. sow's-baby 1699–
       (See quots.).
   12. kick 1725–
       A sixpence.
   13. cripple 1785–1885
       slang. A sixpence. Obsolete.
   14. grunter 1785–
       slang. A shilling (? obsolete) or a sixpence.
   15. tilbury 1796–1819
       A sixpenny piece; sixpence. slang. Obsolete.
   16. tizzy 1804–
       A sixpenny-piece. Also in combinations, as tizzy-snatcher n. Nautical slang an assistant paymaster.
   17. tanner 1811–
       A sixpence. Also attributive.
   18. bender 1836–
       slang. A sixpence. (? Because it bends easily.)
   19. lord of the manor 1839–
       Rhyming slang for a tanner (tanner, n.²). Occasionally in the contracted form lord. Now historical and rare.
   20. snid 1839
       A sixpence.
   21. sprat 1839–
       slang. British, Australian, and New Zealand. A small coin of little value; spec. a sixpence. Now rare.
   22. fiddler 1846–
       slang. A sixpence.
   23. sixpenny bit or piece 1897–
       Amounting to, having the value of, sixpence.
   24. zac 1898–
       A sixpence.
   25. sprasey 1905–
       A sixpence.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zak/
zack

### U.S. English

/zæk/
zack

### Australian English

/zæk/

####

##### 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.

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye*
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- 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 as in British and US English.

##### Vowels

- iːfleece
- ihappy
- ɪkit
- edress
- ætrap
- ʌːpalm, bath, start
- ʌstrut
- ɔlot, cloth
- oːthought, north, force, sure
- ʊfoot
- ʉːgoose
- ɜːnurse
- æeface
- ɑepride
- əletter
- ɪənear
- eːsquare
- ʉːəcure
- æɔmouth
- əʉgoat
- oɪvoice
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/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 zack, zak.

## Frequency

zac typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zac is in frequency band 2, which contains words occurring between 0.001 and 0.01 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 zac, n., 1890–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1890 | 0.0096
1900 | 0.01
1910 | 0.0097
1920 | 0.0097
1930 | 0.009
1940 | 0.0088
1950 | 0.0091
1960 | 0.0087
1970 | 0.0074
1980 | 0.0073
1990 | 0.0069
2000 | 0.0067
2010 | 0.0062

### Frequency of zac, 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 | 0.0091
2018 | 0.01
2019 | 0.013
2020 | 0.015
2021 | 0.026
2022 | 0.032
2023 | 0.036
2024 | 0.04

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

zac, n. was last modified in June 2024.