zymogenic, adj.

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

# zymogenicadjective

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zymogenic mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the adjective zymogenic. 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 adjective zymogenic?

About 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1880 | 0.017
1890 | 0.016
1900 | 0.018
1910 | 0.019
1920 | 0.021
1930 | 0.021
1940 | 0.02
1950 | 0.02
1960 | 0.019
1970 | 0.016
1980 | 0.013
1990 | 0.011
2000 | 0.01
2010 | 0.008

### Where does the adjective zymogenic come from?

Earliest known use

1880s

The earliest known use of the adjective zymogenic is in the 1880s.

OED's earliest evidence for zymogenic is from 1884, in the writing of E. Klein.

### Nearby entries

1. zymate, n. 1817–19
2. zyme, n. 1882–
3. zymic, adj. 1817–26
4. zymin, n. 1842–
5. zyminized, adj. 1888–
6. zymo-, comb. form
7. zymocyte, n. a1909–
8. zymodeme, n. 1978–
9. zymogen, n. 1877–
10. zymogenetic, adj. 1896–
11. zymogenic, adj.1884–
12. zymogluconate, n. 1887–
13. zymogluconic, adj. 1886–
14. zymogram, n. 1957–
15. zymohydrolysis, n. 1903–
16. zymoid, adj. & n. 1891–
17. zymological, adj. 1828–
18. zymologist, n. 1828–
19. zymology, n. 1753–
20. zymolysis, n. 1890–
21. zymolytic, adj. 1890–

## Meaning & use

Biochemistry.

1. 1884–
   See zymogen n.
   Stressed as zymoˈgenic.
   1. 1884

      > Putrefactive and many zymogenic organisms thrive well at ordinary temperatures.

      E. Klein, Micro-organisms xxi. 187
   2. 1900

      > Zymogenic..bacteria.

      Nature 13 September 405
   organic chemistry
   1. leavening 1628–
      That leavens something (literal and figurative).
   2. fermentive 1656–
      Tending to produce fermentation.
   3. zymogenic 1884–
   4. zymogenetic 1896–
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

zymogenic typically occurs about 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zymogenic is in frequency band 3, which contains words occurring between 0.01 and 0.1 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 zymogenic, adj., 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 | 0.017
1890 | 0.016
1900 | 0.018
1910 | 0.019
1920 | 0.021
1930 | 0.021
1940 | 0.02
1950 | 0.02
1960 | 0.019
1970 | 0.016
1980 | 0.013
1990 | 0.011
2000 | 0.01
2010 | 0.008

Originally published as part of the entry for zymogen, n.

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