Zen, v.

zen
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zen_v%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 2018

# Zenverb

## Factsheet

### What does the verb Zen mean?

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

### How common is the verb Zen?

About 0.03occurrences per million words in modern written English

2017 | 0.015
2018 | 0.017
2019 | 0.018
2020 | 0.023
2021 | 0.024
2022 | 0.025
2023 | 0.025
2024 | 0.027

### How is the verb Zen pronounced?

#### British English

/zɛn/
zen

#### U.S. English

/zɛn/
zen

### Where does the verb Zen come from?

Earliest known use

1960s

The earliest known use of the verb Zen is in the 1960s.

OED's earliest evidence for Zen is from 1968, in the writing of I. Horovitz.

It is also recorded as a noun from the early 1700s.

Zen is formed within English, by conversion.

Etymons: Zen n.

### Nearby entries

1. Zemblan, n. & adj. 1674–1805
2. Zemblian, n. & adj. 1674–1796
3. zemi, n. 1555–
4. zemiistic, adj. 1907–
5. zemirah, n. 1767–
6. zemni, n. 1775–
7. Zemsky Sobor, n. 1877–
8. zemstvo, n. 1865–
9. zemstvoist, n. 1904–
10. Zen, n. & adj. 1727–
11. Zen, v.1968–
12. zenana, n. & adj. 1761–
13. zenana cloth, n. 1885–
14. Zen Buddhist, adj. & n. 1917–
15. Zend, n. & adj. 1700–
16. zendaletto, n. 1789–
17. Zend-Avesta, n. 1630–
18. Zend-Avestaic, adj. 1816
19. Zend-Avestan, adj. & n. 1871–
20. Zend-Avestic, adj. 1864–
21. Zendic, n. & adj. 1771–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by conversion.
Etymon: Zen n.
< Zen n.

With to Zen out compare Zenned-out adj.

## Meaning & use

colloquial.

1. 1968–
   intransitive. to Zen out: to enter a state of meditative calmness or serenity of mind, emotions, etc.; to relax. Cf. Zen n. A.2.
   1. 1968

      > ‘If you can't beat 'em, Zen out,’ that's what I always say.

      I. Horovitz, It's called Sugar Plum in First Season 104
   2. 1990

      > Internally wired but externally calm, I Zenned out as the world around me fell away.

      N. Collins, Hard to Get (1992) 11
   3. 2014

      > Men Zenning out and limbering up, hatha style.

      Herald Sun (Melbourne) (Nexis) 2 February (Sunday Style Magazine) 27
   colloquial and slang
   1. saughtel c1400
      To become calm or quiet.
   2. breathe 1485–
      intransitive. To rest and recover after vigorous physical activity; to take a breather. Also figurative: to pause in order to reflect, relax, or…
   3. pacify 1509–
      intransitive. To become peaceful, calm down; to moderate. rare.
   4. settle 1591–
      intransitive. Of strong emotion: to subside, calm down. Of the brain, mind, etc.: to become calm or composed.
   5. compose 1663
      intransitive (for reflexive). Obsolete.
   6. to breathe freely (also easy, easily) 1695–
      to breathe freely (also easy, easily) and variants: to feel at ease in a particular situation or environment. Also: to relax; to recover one's…
   7. tranquillize 1748–
      intransitive. To become tranquil or quiet.
   8. cool 1836–
      figurative. intransitive. colloquial (originally U.S.). With out. To calm down, relax; to take it easy.
   9. simmer down 1842–
      Originally U.S. intransitive. To calm down from an angry or agitated state.
   10. calm 1877–
       intransitive. Of the sea or wind: To become calm. Obsolete except with down. Also figurative.
   11. relax 1907–
       intransitive. To become less tense, anxious, or stressed; to calm down. Frequently in imperative.
   12. to cool it 1952–
       slang (originally U.S.). to cool it: to relax, calm down; (also) to curtail or put an end to an activity (frequently with on, with). Frequently in…
   13. to Zen out 1968–
       intransitive. to Zen out: to enter a state of meditative calmness or serenity of mind, emotions, etc.; to relax. Cf. Zen, n. A.2.
   14. mellow 1974–
       intransitive. colloquial (originally U.S.). With out. To become relaxed, esp. under the influence of a drug. Also (occasionally) transitive (reflexive…
   15. to take a chill pill 1981–
       A (notional) pill used to calm or relax a person. Frequently in to take a chill pill: to calm down, to relax, to ‘chill out’ (usually in imperative)…
   16. chillax 1994–
       intransitive. To calm down and relax; to take it easy, to chill (see chill, v. additions 4). Often in imperative: ‘relax’, ‘calm down’.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zɛn/
zen

### U.S. English

/zɛn/
zen

####

##### 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

Also with lower-case initial.

## Frequency

Zen typically occurs about 0.03 times per million words in modern written English.

Zen is in frequency band 3, which contains words occurring between 0.01 and 0.1 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 Zen, v., 1960–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1960 | 0.032
1970 | 0.033
1980 | 0.033
1990 | 0.033
2000 | 0.034
2010 | 0.034

### Frequency of Zen, v., 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 | 0.015
2018 | 0.017
2019 | 0.018
2020 | 0.023
2021 | 0.024
2022 | 0.025
2023 | 0.025
2024 | 0.027

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. Zenned-out, adj. 1968–
   Of a person: relaxed, serene, laid-back…

Zen, v. was first published in June 2018.

Zen, v. was last modified in July 2023.