zither, v.

zither
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zither_v%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# zitherverb

## Earlier version

- zither, v. in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the verb zither mean?

There are three meanings listed in OED's entry for the verb zither. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

### How common is the verb zither?

About 0.02occurrences per million words in modern written English

1890 | 0.016
1900 | 0.016
1910 | 0.017
1920 | 0.017
1930 | 0.018
1940 | 0.019
1950 | 0.02
1960 | 0.021
1970 | 0.02
1980 | 0.02
1990 | 0.02
2000 | 0.02
2010 | 0.019

### How is the verb zither pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɪðə/
ZIDH-uh
/ˈzɪθə/
ZITH-uh

#### U.S. English

/ˈzɪðər/
ZIDH-uhr
/ˈzɪθər/
ZITH-uhr

### Where does the verb zither come from?

Earliest known use

1880s

The earliest known use of the verb zither is in the 1880s.

OED's earliest evidence for zither is from 1889, in the writing of M. Ostlere.

It is also recorded as a noun from the 1830s.

zither is formed within English, by conversion.

Etymons: zither n.

### Nearby entries

1. zirconolite, n. 1957–
2. zircon-syenite, n. 1813–
3. zirconyl, n. 1887–
4. zirkelite, n. 1895–
5. zit, n. 1912–
6. zit cream, n. 1968–
7. zitella, n. a1660–
8. zit-face, n. 1974–
9. zit-faced, adj. 1971–
10. zither, n. 1831–
11. zither, v.1889–
12. zither banjo, n. 1888–
13. zithering, adj. 1889–
14. zitherist, n. 1866–
15. zither-like, adj. 1881–
16. ziti, n. 1845–
17. zitty, adj. 1971–
18. Ziv, n. a1382–
19. zizania, n. 1526–
20. zizany, n. a1400–1803
21. zizel, n. 1775–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by conversion.
< zither n.…
< zither n.

### Notes

In later use in senses 1a and 1b apparently reinterpreted as imitative (perhaps partly after whither v., blether v., dither v.).
In quot. 1930 at sense 1b with punning allusion to sense 2.
In quot. 1891 at sense 2 perhaps with punning allusion to sense 1a.

## Meaning & use

1. 1. 1.a.
      1889–
      intransitive. To make a sound like that of a zither; to make a sibilant humming sound; to buzz lightly. Also: to move while making such a sound.
      1. 1889
         implied in:

         > It swithered through the badly-fixed windows, making zithering sounds as of an army of cold and frozen-out mosquitoes. [at zithering adj.]

         M. Ostlere, Dead! iii. 76
      2. 1935

         > Every day cars pass this window which were born along about 1914, but they are still zithering along in the direction the driver seems to want to go.

         Del Rio (Texas) Evening News 16 May 1/1
      3. 1958

         > His squeaky voice zithered through morning or afternoon.

         J. Townsend, Young Devils iv. 35
      4. 1981

         > Insects zithered and chirred.

         B. Carter, Black Fox Running xxvii. 176
      5. 1997

         > There are fields of sunflowers and cicadas zithering under a hard blue sky.

         Observer (Nexis) 27 July (Sports section) 11
      1. hurr 1398–
         intransitive. To make or utter a dull sound of vibration or trilling; to buzz as an insect; to snarl as a dog; to pronounce a trilled r.
      2. hoss 1530
         intransitive. To buzz.
      3. breeze 1688
         intransitive. To buzz as a breeze or gadfly.
      4. bombilate 1854–
         intransitive. To hum or buzz; to make a low buzzing or droning sound; to move with or as if with such a sound. Also figurative: to be animated by or…
      5. zizz 1883–
         intransitive. To make a whizzing or buzzing sound; to move with such a sound (usually with adverb or prepositional phrase expressing direction).
      6. zoom 1886–
         intransitive. To move or travel very quickly, esp. making a continuous humming, buzzing, or droning sound; to make such a sound while moving…
      7. zither 1889–
         intransitive. To make a sound like that of a zither; to make a sibilant humming sound; to buzz lightly. Also: to move while making such a sound.
      View in Historical Thesaurus
   2. 1.b.
      1930–
      transitive. To cause (something) to flutter or flicker.
      1. 1930

         > The sunlight, zithering their flanks with fire, Flashes between the shadows as they pass.

         R. Campbell, Adamastor 71
      2. 2005

         > The breeze zithered Duke's hair.

         R. Laymon, Into the Fire (2006) xxii. 155
      3. 2019

         > Two hundred acres zithered by breeze and flashes of sun.

         B. Holsinger, Gifted School (e-book edition)
      1. waver c1425–1812
         causal. To cause to waver; to wave to and fro; to set in waving or fluttering motion; to render unsteady or unsteadfast. Obsolete.
      2. wear?a1505
         transitive. To cause to fly or flutter out. Scottish. Obsolete.
      3. flutter 1621–
         transitive (causatively). To cause to flutter; to move (a thing) in quick irregular motions; to agitate, ruffle. Also †to flutter (a thing) into r…
      4. flitter 1864–
         transitive. To make to flit; to move rapidly backwards and forwards; to shuffle (cards). rare.
      5. wink 1883–
         To move swiftly, cause to flicker like an eyelid.
      6. flicker 1903–
         transitive. To cause to move in a fitful and unsteady manner; to indicate by a flicker.
      7. zither 1930–
         transitive. To cause (something) to flutter or flicker.
      View in Historical Thesaurus
2. 2.
   1891–
   intransitive. To play the zither. rare.
   1. 1891

      > If the zithern peddler had not been put out of the shop as he was the whole shop might be zithering now.

      Massillon (Ohio) Daily Independent 15 May
   2. 1906

      > We wandered and fiddled and zithered and tambourined through France.

      W. J. Locke, Beloved Vagabond (1907) ix. 120
   3. 2008

      > Koch, Arnold Weinstein, and others came to the house, taping their poems as I pianoed and zithered and drummed away.

      J. Gruen, Callas kissed Me...Lenny Too! xxiii. 138
   music
   1. zither 1891–
      intransitive. To play the zither. rare.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɪðə/
ZIDH-uh
/ˈzɪθə/
ZITH-uh

### U.S. English

/ˈzɪðər/
ZIDH-uhr
/ˈzɪθər/
ZITH-uhr

####

##### 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

zither typically occurs about 0.02 times per million words in modern written English.

zither 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 zither, v., 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 | 0.016
1900 | 0.016
1910 | 0.017
1920 | 0.017
1930 | 0.018
1940 | 0.019
1950 | 0.02
1960 | 0.021
1970 | 0.02
1980 | 0.02
1990 | 0.02
2000 | 0.02
2010 | 0.019

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. zithering, adj. 1889–
   Reminiscent of or involving a zither; buzzing…

zither, v. was revised in March 2021.

zither, v. was last modified in September 2024.