zizzing, adj.

zizzing
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zizzing_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# zizzingadjective

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zizzing mean?

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

### How common is the adjective zizzing?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1910 | 0.0003
1920 | 0.0003
1930 | 0.0002
1940 | 0.0002
1950 | 0.0002
1960 | 0.0002
1970 | 0.0002
1980 | 0.0002
1990 | 0.0002
2000 | 0.0002
2010 | 0.0002

### How is the adjective zizzing pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɪzɪŋ/
ZIZ-ing

#### U.S. English

/ˈzɪzɪŋ/
ZIZ-ing

### Where does the adjective zizzing come from?

Earliest known use

1910s

The earliest known use of the adjective zizzing is in the 1910s.

OED's earliest evidence for zizzing is from 1919, in Youth's Companion.

zizzing is formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: zizz v., ‑ing suffix2.

### Nearby entries

1. zitty, adj. 1971–
2. Ziv, n. a1382–
3. zizania, n. 1526–
4. zizany, n. a1400–1803
5. zizel, n. 1775–
6. zizypha, n. 1546–1775
7. zizyphus, n.?1440–
8. zizz, v. 1883–
9. zizz, int. & n. 1824–
10. zizzing, n. 1884–
11. zizzing, adj.1919–
12. zizzy, adj. 1843–
13. Zlid, n. 1616–1785
14. Z'life, n. 1689
15. Z line, n. 1916–
16. Z-list, n. & adj. 1979–
17. Z-lister, n. 1999–
18. zloty, n. 1915–
19. Zn, n. 1814–
20. -zoa, comb. form
21. -zoan, comb. form

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by derivation.
< zizz v. + ‑ing suffix2.

## Meaning & use

1. 1919–
   That makes a buzzing or whizzing sound.
   1. 1919

      > ‘Not June bugs in the hair—in the air,’ Miss Adeline elucidated. ‘Zizzing ones, Thomas.’

      Youth's Companion 18 September 504/2
   2. 1951

      > Confusion continued, it seemed to Ned, to the old background of zizzing flies, bellowing cows, walks, and hot, cloudy weather.

      J. Strachey, Man on Pier 88
   3. 2015

      > I loved everything about woodworking: the screaming saw, the zizzing drill, the smell of sawdust and the feel of wood shavings.

      Natchez (Mississippi) Democrat (Nexis) 20 December

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɪzɪŋ/
ZIZ-ing

### U.S. English

/ˈzɪzɪŋ/
ZIZ-ing

####

##### 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

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

zizzing is in frequency band 1, which contains words occurring fewer than 0.001 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 zizzing, adj., 1910–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1910 | 0.0003
1920 | 0.0003
1930 | 0.0002
1940 | 0.0002
1950 | 0.0002
1960 | 0.0002
1970 | 0.0002
1980 | 0.0002
1990 | 0.0002
2000 | 0.0002
2010 | 0.0002

Originally published as part of the entry for zizz, v.

zizzing, adj. was revised in March 2021.

zizzing, adj. was last modified in July 2023.