zope, n.

zope
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zope_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1921; not fully revised

# zopenoun

## Earlier version

- zope in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zope mean?

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

#### Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

### How common is the noun zope?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1880 | 0.0005
1890 | 0.0006
1900 | 0.0005
1910 | 0.0005
1920 | 0.0005
1930 | 0.0004
1940 | 0.0012
1950 | 0.0013
1960 | 0.0012
1970 | 0.0029
1980 | 0.0046
1990 | 0.0053
2000 | 0.0063
2010 | 0.0064

### How is the noun zope pronounced?

#### British English

/zəʊp/

### Where does the noun zope come from?

Earliest known use

1880s

The earliest known use of the noun zope is in the 1880s.

OED's only evidence for zope is from 1880, in the writing of A. Günther.

zope is a borrowing from German.

Etymons: German zope.

### Nearby entries

1. zoot-suited, adj. 1942–
2. zoot-suiter, n. 1942–
3. zooty, adj. 1942–
4. zootype, n. 1883–
5. zootypic, adj. 1853–
6. zoowoman, n. 1930–
7. zooxanthella, n. 1882–
8. zooxanthellate, adj. & n. 1981–
9. zooxanthin, n. 1868–
10. zoozygosphere, n. 1880–
11. zope, n.1880–
12. zophoric, adj. 1728–
13. zophorus | zoophorus, n. 1563–
14. zopilote, n. 1787–
15. zopissa, n. 1601–
16. zoppa, adj. 1740–
17. Zoque, n. 1891–
18. Zoque–Mixe, adj. & n. 1893–
19. Zorb, n. 1996–
20. zorbing, n. 1996–
21. zorgite, n. 1852–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from German.
Etymon: German zope.
< German dialect zope (French sope), probably Slavic (compare Russian sapá).

## Meaning & use

1. 1880–
   A bream, Abramis ballerus.
   1. 1880

      > In Europe there occur the ‘Common bream’, A. brama; the ‘Zope’, A [bramis] ballerus.

      A. Günther, Introduction to Study of Fishes 603
   fish
   1. bream c1405–
      The common name of a freshwater fish (Abramis brama) called also Carp-bream, which inhabits lakes and deep water, and is distinguished by its…
   2. breamet 1462–96
      A young, or small, bream.
   3. cud bream 1655–72
      Any of several breams, esp. the common bream, Abramis brama.
   4. Pomeranian bream 1839–
      A freshwater fish found in Europe, formerly thought to be a thicker-bodied species of bream but later identified as a hybrid of the common bream, Abr…
   5. zope 1880–
      A bream, Abramis ballerus.
   6. brim 1898–
      = bream, n. spec. U.S. the long-eared sunfish (Lepomis auritus); cf. bream, n. 2b.
   7. skimmer 1971–
      Angling. A small bream.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zəʊp/

####

##### 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.

## Frequency

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

zope is in frequency band 2, which contains words occurring between 0.001 and 0.01 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 zope, n., 1880–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1880 | 0.0005
1890 | 0.0006
1900 | 0.0005
1910 | 0.0005
1920 | 0.0005
1930 | 0.0004
1940 | 0.0012
1950 | 0.0013
1960 | 0.0012
1970 | 0.0029
1980 | 0.0046
1990 | 0.0053
2000 | 0.0063
2010 | 0.0064

zope, n. was first published in 1921; not fully revised.

zope, n. was last modified in December 2024.