ziraleet, n.

ziraleet
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/ziraleet_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# ziraleetnoun

## Earlier version

- ziraleet in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun ziraleet mean?

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

### How common is the noun ziraleet?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1790 | 0.0041
1800 | 0.0033
1810 | 0.0028
1820 | 0.0026
1830 | 0.0007
1840 | 0.0008
1850 | 0.0007
1860 | 0.0005
1870 | 0.0005
1880 | 0.0004
1890 | 0.0002
1900 | 0.0002
1910 | 0.0001
1920 | 0.00004
1930 | 0.00003
1940 | 0.00004
1950 | 0.00002
1960 | 0.00003
1970 | 0.00004
1980 | 0.00006
1990 | 0.00007
2000 | 0.00007
2010 | 0.00006

### How is the noun ziraleet pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɪrəliːt/
ZIRR-uh-leet

#### U.S. English

/ˈzɪrəˌlit/
ZEER-uh-leet

### Where does the noun ziraleet come from?

Earliest known use

late 1700s

The earliest known use of the noun ziraleet is in the late 1700s.

OED's earliest evidence for ziraleet is from 1794, in the writing of P. Russell.

ziraleet is a borrowing from Arabic.

Etymons: Arabic zaġālīṭ, zaġlīṭa.

### Nearby entries

1. Zippo, n.¹ 1944–
2. zippo, n.² 1973–
3. zippy, adj. 1889–
4. zip tie, n. 1969–
5. zip-tie, v. 1985–
6. zip top, n. 1926–
7. zip-up, adj. & n. 1927–
8. zip wire, n. 1971–
9. zir, pron. 1993–
10. zir, adj. 1993–
11. ziraleet, n.1794–
12. ziram, n. 1950–
13. zirbal, adj.?a1425–
14. zirbus, n. a1400–
15. zircaloy, n. 1953–
16. zircon, n. 1794–
17. zirconate, n. 1820–
18. zircon blue, n. & adj. 1928–
19. zircon earth, n. 1794–
20. zirconia, n. 1794–
21. zirconian, adj. 1802–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Arabic.
Etymons: Arabic zaġālīṭ, zaġlīṭa.
< spoken Arabic (e.g. Syria, Palestine, Egypt) zaġālīṭ, plural of zaġlīṭa, variant of literary Arabic zaġrāda ululation.

Compare Arabic (spoken) zaġlaṭa, (literary) zaġrada (of women) to ululate…
< spoken Arabic (e.g. Syria, Palestine, Egypt) zaġālīṭ, plural of zaġlīṭa, variant of literary Arabic zaġrāda ululation.

Compare Arabic (spoken) zaġlaṭa, (literary) zaġrada (of women) to ululate.

### Notes

The underlying four-consonant Arabic root shows much regional variation between r and l, d and t, and the emphatic counterpart ṭ of the latter.

## Meaning & use

Now rare.

1. 1794–
   Chiefly with reference to Muslim countries: a trilling, joyful chant sung by a woman or group of women. Also in extended use.
   1. 1794

      > Certain appropriate stanzas, by way of epithalamium, are chanted by women hired on purpose, or by slaves, and the ziraleet serves as a general chorus.

      P. Russell, A. Russell's Natural History Aleppo (ed. 2) vol. I. ii. vi. 286
   2. 1817

      > And light your shrines and chaunt your ziraleets.

      T. Moore, Lalla Rookh 95
   3. 1833

      > A chorus of young girls sung the ziraleet as she passed.

      Token & Atlantic Souvenir 115
   4. 1856

      > Like the music-blessing Of lark's ziraleet.

      Excelsior vol. 6 213
   5. 1994

      > ‘I've never done this before,’ she said (emitting splashy ziraleets).

      T. Fischer, Thought Gang (1997) 152
   Islam
   1. Nowell c1395–
      A word shouted or sung: expressing joy, originally to commemorate the birth of Christ. Now only as retained in Christmas carols (cf. noel, n.).
   2. harvest home 1648–
      A shout or song of rejoicing on that occasion.
   3. ziraleet 1794–
      Chiefly with reference to Muslim countries: a trilling, joyful chant sung by a woman or group of women. Also in extended use.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɪrəliːt/
ZIRR-uh-leet

### U.S. English

/ˈzɪrəˌlit/
ZEER-uh-leet

####

##### 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

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

ziraleet 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 ziraleet, n., 1790–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1790 | 0.0041
1800 | 0.0033
1810 | 0.0028
1820 | 0.0026
1830 | 0.0007
1840 | 0.0008
1850 | 0.0007
1860 | 0.0005
1870 | 0.0005
1880 | 0.0004
1890 | 0.0002
1900 | 0.0002
1910 | 0.0001
1920 | 0.00004
1930 | 0.00003
1940 | 0.00004
1950 | 0.00002
1960 | 0.00003
1970 | 0.00004
1980 | 0.00006
1990 | 0.00007
2000 | 0.00007
2010 | 0.00006

ziraleet, n. was revised in March 2021.

ziraleet, n. was last modified in July 2023.