zaniness, n.

zaniness
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zaniness_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2024

# zaninessnoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zaniness mean?

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

### How common is the noun zaniness?

About 0.04occurrences per million words in modern written English

2017 | 0.045
2018 | 0.042
2019 | 0.041
2020 | 0.039
2021 | 0.039
2022 | 0.037
2023 | 0.039
2024 | 0.039

### How is the noun zaniness pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzeɪninᵻs/
ZAY-nee-nuhss

#### U.S. English

/ˈzeɪninᵻs/
ZAY-nee-nuhss

### Where does the noun zaniness come from?

Earliest known use

1930s

The earliest known use of the noun zaniness is in the 1930s.

OED's earliest evidence for zaniness is from 1933, in Salt Lake Telegram.

zaniness is formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: zany adj., ‑ness suffix.

### Nearby entries

1. zamorin, n. 1582–
2. zampino, n. 1881–
3. zampogna, n. 1740–
4. zampone, n. 1860–
5. zamzawed, adj. 1743–
6. Zamzummim, n. 1530–
7. Zande, n. 1873–
8. zander, n. 1854–
9. zanella, n. 1876–
10. zanily, adv. 1936–
11. zaniness, n.1933–
12. Zante, n. 1615–
13. Zantedeschia, n. 1836–
14. ZANU, n. 1963–
15. zany, n. & adj. 1582–
16. zany, v. 1602–1894
17. zanyish, adj. 1843–
18. zanyism, n. 1823–
19. zanyship, n. 1766–1839
20. Zanzibari, n. & adj. 1882–
21. zap, n. 1968–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by derivation.
< zany adj. + ‑ness suffix.

## Meaning & use

1. 1933–
   The state, condition, or quality of being zany; esp. imaginative or amusing unconventionality; humorously eccentric, absurd, or chaotic behaviour. Cf. zany adj.
   1. 1933

      > The Marxes have rolled up quite a reputation for plain and fancy zaniness, but ‘Duck Soup’ is their best.

      Salt Lake Telegram 17 November (Home edition) 23/3
   2. 1960

      > Ginsberg, for all his carefully cultivated (and natural) zaniness, is a writer far above Kerouac.

      Saturday Review (U.S.) 6 February 13/2
   3. 1985

      > How could anything with Jerry Lewis not fall into a comic range somewhere between surrealistic zaniness and childish destructiveness?

      Listener 21 March 28/3
   4. 2022

      > It's high-energy, non-stop zaniness, full of bonkers, off the wall humour.

      National Post (Canada) 4 November f12/3
   1. comicalness?1691–
      The quality of being comical.
   2. comicality 1718–
      The quality or fact of being comical or comic.
   3. vis comica 1757–
      In special collocations with other Latin words. vis comica, humorous energy; comic force or effect.
   4. drollness 1823–
   5. funniness 1836–
      The quality or state of being funny (chiefly in sense A.1).
   6. farcicality 1849–
      Farcical quality; an instance of this.
   7. funniosity 1920–
      Humour, jocularity. Now somewhat rare.
   8. zaniness 1933–
      The state, condition, or quality of being zany; esp. imaginative or amusing unconventionality; humorously eccentric, absurd, or chaotic…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzeɪninᵻs/
ZAY-nee-nuhss

### U.S. English

/ˈzeɪninᵻs/
ZAY-nee-nuhss

####

##### 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

## Frequency

zaniness typically occurs about 0.04 times per million words in modern written English.

zaniness 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 zaniness, 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 | 0.045
2018 | 0.042
2019 | 0.041
2020 | 0.039
2021 | 0.039
2022 | 0.037
2023 | 0.039
2024 | 0.039

Originally published as part of the entry for zany, n. & adj.

zaniness, n. was revised in March 2024.

zaniness, n. was last modified in June 2024.