Ziv, n.

ziv
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/ziv_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# Zivnoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun Ziv mean?

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

### How common is the noun Ziv?

About 0.1occurrences per million words in modern written English

1760 | 0.0029
1770 | 0.0027
1780 | 0.0025
1790 | 0.0022
1800 | 0.0027
1810 | 0.0032
1820 | 0.0035
1830 | 0.0039
1840 | 0.0035
1850 | 0.0035
1860 | 0.0027
1870 | 0.0026
1880 | 0.0026
1890 | 0.0035
1900 | 0.0058
1910 | 0.007
1920 | 0.01
1930 | 0.014
1940 | 0.018
1950 | 0.026
1960 | 0.04
1970 | 0.063
1980 | 0.09
1990 | 0.12
2000 | 0.13
2010 | 0.15

### How is the noun Ziv pronounced?

#### British English

/zɪv/
ziv

#### U.S. English

/zɪv/
ziv

### Where does the noun Ziv come from?

Earliest known use

Middle English

The earliest known use of the noun Ziv is in the Middle English period (1150—1500).

OED's earliest evidence for Ziv is from before 1382, in Bible (Wycliffite, early version).

Ziv is of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Partly a borrowing from Hebrew.

Etymons: Latin zio; Hebrew Zīw.

### Nearby entries

1. zit-face, n. 1974–
2. zit-faced, adj. 1971–
3. zither, n. 1831–
4. zither, v. 1889–
5. zither banjo, n. 1888–
6. zithering, adj. 1889–
7. zitherist, n. 1866–
8. zither-like, adj. 1881–
9. ziti, n. 1845–
10. zitty, adj. 1971–
11. Ziv, n.a1382–
12. zizania, n. 1526–
13. zizany, n. a1400–1803
14. zizel, n. 1775–
15. zizypha, n. 1546–1775
16. zizyphus, n.?1440–
17. zizz, v. 1883–
18. zizz, int. & n. 1824–
19. zizzing, n. 1884–
20. zizzing, adj. 1919–
21. zizzy, adj. 1843–

## Etymology

### Summary

Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Partly a borrowing from Hebrew.
Etymons: Latin zio; Hebrew Zīw.
In α forms < post-classical Latin zio (Vulgate) < Hebrew Zīw (see below); compare Hellenistic Greek Zίος (in some manuscripts of the Septuagint, whereas others simply have ἐν μηνὶ τῷ δευτέρῳ ‘in the second…
In α forms < post-classical Latin zio (Vulgate) < Hebrew Zīw (see below); compare Hellenistic Greek Zίος (in some manuscripts of the Septuagint, whereas others simply have ἐν μηνὶ τῷ δευτέρῳ ‘in the second month’).

In β forms reborrowed < Hebrew Zīw, the name of the second month of the ancient Israelite year (1 Kings 6:1, 37; compare Aramaic zīw brightness, freshness (already in biblical Aramaic, e.g. in Daniel 2:31)), probably < Akkadian zīmu appearance, countenance, lustre.

## Meaning & use

Jewish History.

1. a1382–
   In the ancient Hebrew calendar: the second month of the religious year and the eighth of the civil year, usually coinciding with parts of April and May.
   The month was later called Iyyar (see Iyyar n.).
   1. (a1382)

      > Þe ferþe ȝeer þe hous of þe lord is foundid in þe monyþ of ȝio [a1425 Corpus Christi Oxford MS. Zio; Latin zio].

      Bible (Wycliffite, early version) (Bodleian MS. 959) (1963) 3 Kings vi. 37
      [Composed a1382]
   2. 1611

      > In the fourth yeere was the foundation of the house of the Lord layd, in the moneth Zif.

      Bible (King James) 1 Kings vi. 37
   3. 1965

      > When the month of Abib passed and Ziv came again..the two leaders began to lose courage.

      J. A. Michener, Source (1966) 234
   4. 2005

      > He notes that the foundation was laid in Ziv, the 2nd month of Solomon's 4th year.

      M. C. Tetley, Reconstructed Chronol. of Divided Kingdom vi. 105
   Judaism
   1. Adar a1382–
      In the Jewish calendar: the sixth month of the civil and twelfth of the religious year, consisting of 29 days and usually coinciding with parts…
   2. Sivan a1382–
      The ninth month of the Jewish year, though named third in the traditional month-list, corresponding to the latter part of May and the earlier part of…
   3. Tebeth a1382–
      The fourth month of the Jewish year (though placed tenth in the traditional list of months), corresponding to parts of December and January.
   4. Ziv a1382–
      In the ancient Hebrew calendar: the second month of the religious year and the eighth of the civil year, usually coinciding with parts of April…
   5. Kislev c1384–
      The third month of the Jewish civil year and the ninth of the ecclesiastical year, corresponding to parts of November and December.
   6. Abib 1531–
      In the ancient Hebrew calendar: the first month of the ecclesiastical year and the seventh of the civil year, corresponding to the latter part of…
   7. Elul 1535–
      The name of one of the Jewish months, being the twelfth of the civil and sixth of the ecclesiastical year.
   8. Ethanim 1535–
      In the pre-exilic Jewish calendar: the seventh month of the religious year and first of the civil year, usually coinciding with parts of September…
   9. Sebat 1535–
      The eleventh month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year and fifth of the civil year.
   10. Thammuz 1535–
       The tenth month of the Jewish civil year, and the fourth of the sacred, containing twenty-nine days, and corresponding to parts of June and July.
   11. Av 1560–
       In the Jewish calendar: the fifth month of the religious year and eleventh of the civil year, usually coinciding with parts of July and August…
   12. Muharram 1595–
       The first month of the year in the Islamic calendar.
   13. Marcheshvan 1646–
       The eighth month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year, corresponding with the end of October and the beginning of November; = Hesvan, n.
   14. Iyyar 1737–
       The post-exilic name of one of the Jewish months, being the eighth of the civil and second of the ecclesiastical year; its pre-exilic name was Ziv, n.
   15. Brumaire 1793–
       The second month of the French Republican calendar (introduced in 1793), extending from 22 October to 20 November.
   16. Fructidor 1793–
       The twelfth month of the French revolutionary calendar (from August 18 to September 16); the revolution which took place in that month in 1797.
   17. Germinal 1793–
       The seventh month of the French revolutionary calendar (introduced in 1793), lasting from 21 March to 19 April.
   18. Messidor 1793–
       The tenth month of the French revolutionary calendar (introduced in 1793), lasting from 19 June to 18 July.
   19. Pluviose 1793–
       The fifth month of the French revolutionary calendar (introduced in 1793), beginning on 20, 21, or 22 January and ending on 18, 19, or 20…
   20. Prairial 1793–
       The ninth month of the French revolutionary calendar (introduced in 1793), lasting from 20 May to 18 June.
   21. Nivôse 1794–
       The fourth month of the French Republican calendar (introduced in 1793), extending from 21 December to 19 January.
   22. Vendémiaire 1799–
       The first month of the French republican calendar, introduced in 1793, extending from September 22 to October 21.
   23. Thermidor 1801–
       The eleventh month of the French revolutionary calendar, extending (in 1794) from July 19 to August 17.
   24. Floreal 1802–
       The name adopted for the eighth month of the year in the calendar of the French Republic introduced in 1793; it extended from April 20 to May 19.
   25. Ventôse 1802–
       The sixth month of the French republican calendar, introduced in 1793, extending from 19 February to 20 March.
   26. Hesvan 1833–
       The eighth month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year and the second month of the civil year, corresponding to parts of October and November; also…
   27. Tishri 1833–
       The Babylonian name of the first month of the Jewish civil year, or the seventh of the ecclesiastical, corresponding to parts of September and…
   28. Frimaire 1838–
       The third month of the French revolutionary calendar (from November 21 to December 20).
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zɪv/
ziv

### U.S. English

/zɪv/
ziv

####

##### 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.

####

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

##### α.

1. Middle English
   Ȝio, Zio

##### β.

1. 1600s
   Zif
2. 1600s–
   Ziv
3. 1800s–
   Siv, Ziw

## Frequency

Ziv typically occurs about 0.1 times per million words in modern written English.

Ziv 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 Ziv, n., 1760–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1760 | 0.0029
1770 | 0.0027
1780 | 0.0025
1790 | 0.0022
1800 | 0.0027
1810 | 0.0032
1820 | 0.0035
1830 | 0.0039
1840 | 0.0035
1850 | 0.0035
1860 | 0.0027
1870 | 0.0026
1880 | 0.0026
1890 | 0.0035
1900 | 0.0058
1910 | 0.007
1920 | 0.01
1930 | 0.014
1940 | 0.018
1950 | 0.026
1960 | 0.04
1970 | 0.063
1980 | 0.09
1990 | 0.12
2000 | 0.13
2010 | 0.15

Ziv, n. was revised in March 2021.

Ziv, n. was last modified in July 2023.