zebrule, n.

zebrule
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zebrule_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# zebrulenoun

## Earlier version

- zebrule in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zebrule mean?

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

### How common is the noun zebrule?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1890 | 0.0009
1900 | 0.0008
1910 | 0.0006
1920 | 0.0005
1930 | 0.0004
1940 | 0.0003
1950 | 0.0001
1960 | 0.0001
1970 | 0.0001
1980 | 0.0001
1990 | 0.0002
2000 | 0.0002
2010 | 0.0001

### How is the noun zebrule pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɛbruːl/
ZEB-rool
/ˈziːbruːl/
ZEE-brool

#### U.S. English

/ˈziˌbrul/
ZEE-brool

### Where does the noun zebrule come from?

Earliest known use

1890s

The earliest known use of the noun zebrule is in the 1890s.

OED's earliest evidence for zebrule is from 1899, in Nature: a weekly journal of science.

zebrule is formed within English, by compounding.

Etymons: zebra n., mule n.1

### Nearby entries

1. zebra skin, n. 1774–
2. zebra spider, n. 1806–
3. zebra suit, n. 1853–
4. zebra swallowtail, n. 1855–
5. zebra wolf, n. 1808–
6. zebrawood, n. 1768–
7. zebra woodpecker, n. 1884–
8. zebrina, n. 1846–
9. zebrine, adj. a1810–
10. zebroid, adj. & n. 1881–
11. zebrule, n.1899–
12. zebu, n. 1771–
13. zecchino, n. 1572–
14. Zechstein, n. 1798–
15. zed, n. c1175–
16. zedbed, n. 1954–
17. zedoary, n. Old English–
18. zedonk, n. 1961–
19. zee, n. 1580–
20. Zeelander, n. c1400–
21. Zeelandic, adj. 1802–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by compounding.
< zebr- (in zebra n.) + ‑ule (in mule n.1).

## Meaning & use

Now chiefly historical.

1. 1899–
   The hybrid offspring of a male zebra and a female equine; esp. a zedonk (see zedonk n.).
   1. 1899

      > The zebra ♂ -horse ♀ hybrids (Zebrules), bred by the author [sc. J. C. Ewart] at Penycuik..differ from the Burchell zebra parents.

      Nature 9 February 355/1
   2. 1907

      > Two zebrules were born during the year; they are both fillies of a very fair stamp, bay in colour, with zebra markings.

      Ann. Admin. Rep. Civil Vet. Department India 14
   3. 1978

      > By December 13, 1903 every last yak and zebrule had crossed the frontier of Tibet.

      J. Morris, Farewell Trumpets vii. 132
   historical
   1. zebrule 1899–
      The hybrid offspring of a male zebra and a female equine; esp. a zedonk (see zedonk, n.).
   2. zonkey 1953–
      The offspring of a zebra and a donkey. Cf. zedonk, n.
   3. zedonk 1961–
      The hybrid offspring of a zebra and a donkey. Cf. zebrule, n., zonkey, n.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɛbruːl/
ZEB-rool
/ˈziːbruːl/
ZEE-brool

### U.S. English

/ˈziˌbrul/
ZEE-brool

####

##### 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

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

zebrule 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 zebrule, n., 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 | 0.0009
1900 | 0.0008
1910 | 0.0006
1920 | 0.0005
1930 | 0.0004
1940 | 0.0003
1950 | 0.0001
1960 | 0.0001
1970 | 0.0001
1980 | 0.0001
1990 | 0.0002
2000 | 0.0002
2010 | 0.0001

zebrule, n. was revised in June 2018.

zebrule, n. was last modified in July 2023.