zayat, n.

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

# zayatnoun

## Earlier version

- zayat in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zayat mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun zayat. 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 zayat?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1820 | 0.2
1830 | 0.17
1840 | 0.15
1850 | 0.14
1860 | 0.13
1870 | 0.11
1880 | 0.084
1890 | 0.041
1900 | 0.034
1910 | 0.026
1920 | 0.013
1930 | 0.01
1940 | 0.009
1950 | 0.007
1960 | 0.0047
1970 | 0.0048
1980 | 0.0047
1990 | 0.0044
2000 | 0.004
2010 | 0.0043

### How is the noun zayat pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɑːjət/

### Where does the noun zayat come from?

Earliest known use

1820s

The earliest known use of the noun zayat is in the 1820s.

OED's earliest evidence for zayat is from 1823, in the writing of A. H. Judson.

zayat is a borrowing from Burmese.

### Nearby entries

1. zari, n. 1969–
2. zariba, n. 1849–
3. zariba, v. 1885–
4. zarnich, n. 1612–
5. Zarp, n. 1895–
6. zarzuela, n. 1888–
7. zat, n. 1934–
8. zatch, n. 1950–
9. zawiya, n. 1836–
10. zawn, n. 1865–
11. zayat, n.1823–
12. zayde, n. 1946–
13. zazen, n. 1727–
14. zazzy, adj. 1961–
15. Z band, n. 1950–
16. ZBB, n. 1976–
17. Z-bed, n. 1973–
18. Z-car, n. 1961–
19. Z-day, n. 1925–
20. Z-DNA, n. 1979–
21. ze, pron. 1864–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Burmese.
Burmese.

## Meaning & use

1. 1823–
   A public hall or shed for worship, meetings, or shelter.
   1. 1823

      > The Zayat, the Burman name for a place for public worship, was erected.

      A. H. Judson, Account Amer. Baptist Mission Burman Empire 145
   2. 1852

      > In April 1819 the first zayat was opened for Christian worship.

      H. W. Pierson, American Missionary Mem. 89
   3. 1906

      > They went straight to the zayat, the strangers' rest-house.

      Blackwood's Magazine August 230/2
   1. hall Old English–
      A large room or building used for public meetings or assemblies, court sessions, social gatherings, etc.
   2. school?a1425–1601
      A public building or place of assembly. Obsolete.
   3. common house 1537–1675
      A building belonging or open to the public, a public building. Obsolete.
   4. basilica 1541–
      Ancient History. Literally and originally, a royal palace; thence, a large oblong building or hall, with double colonnades and a semicircular apse at…
   5. public house 1560–
      A building belonging or open to the community at large; a building for public use, a public building. Now rare and with allusion to sense 2.
   6. public building 1561–
      A building used by the public for any purpose, such as assembly, education, entertainment, or worship.
   7. state house 1593
      A splendid building used for state ceremonies (figurative in quot. 1593.). Obsolete.
   8. prytaneum 1673–
      In extended use: a large public building; a place where people of note are assembled. Also figurative.
   9. house of call 1699–
      (a) A house where journeymen of a particular trade assemble, where carriers call for commissions, or where a person may be heard of or contacted (now…
   10. basilic 1728–
       = basilica, n. 1.
   11. zayat 1823–
       A public hall or shed for worship, meetings, or shelter.
   12. civic centre 1867–
       The centre of a city, municipality, etc., esp. as a focal point for local government and civic amenities; (in later use) spec. a purpose-built…
   13. jong 1904–
       A Tibetan building (also, a territorial and administrative division) constituting a prefecture, frequently also serving as a fortress, a…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɑːjət/

####

##### 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

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

zayat 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 zayat, n., 1820–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1820 | 0.2
1830 | 0.17
1840 | 0.15
1850 | 0.14
1860 | 0.13
1870 | 0.11
1880 | 0.084
1890 | 0.041
1900 | 0.034
1910 | 0.026
1920 | 0.013
1930 | 0.01
1940 | 0.009
1950 | 0.007
1960 | 0.0047
1970 | 0.0048
1980 | 0.0047
1990 | 0.0044
2000 | 0.004
2010 | 0.0043

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

zayat, n. was last modified in December 2024.