Zoroastrianism, n.

zoroastrianism
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoroastrianism_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2023

# Zoroastrianismnoun

## Earlier version

- Zoroastrianism in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun Zoroastrianism mean?

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

### How common is the noun Zoroastrianism?

About 0.3occurrences per million words in modern written English

1850 | 0.081
1860 | 0.1
1870 | 0.13
1880 | 0.16
1890 | 0.21
1900 | 0.24
1910 | 0.27
1920 | 0.29
1930 | 0.31
1940 | 0.32
1950 | 0.32
1960 | 0.3
1970 | 0.31
1980 | 0.32
1990 | 0.32
2000 | 0.32
2010 | 0.34

### How is the noun Zoroastrianism pronounced?

#### British English

/ˌzɒrəʊˈastriənɪz(ə)m/
zorr-oh-ASS-tree-uh-niz-uhm

#### U.S. English

/ˌzɔroʊˈæstriəˌnɪzəm/
zor-oh-ASS-tree-uh-niz-uhm

### Where does the noun Zoroastrianism come from?

Earliest known use

1830s

The earliest known use of the noun Zoroastrianism is in the 1830s.

OED's earliest evidence for Zoroastrianism is from 1832, in the writing of R. J. Rowe.

Zoroastrianism is formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: Zoroastrian adj., ‑ism suffix.

### Nearby entries

1. zopissa, n. 1601–
2. zoppa, adj. 1740–
3. Zoque, n. 1891–
4. Zoque–Mixe, adj. & n. 1893–
5. Zorb, n. 1996–
6. zorbing, n. 1996–
7. zorgite, n. 1852–
8. zori, n.?1823–
9. zoril, n. 1774–
10. Zoroastrian, adj. & n. 1597–
11. Zoroastrianism, n.1832–
12. Zoroastrianize, v. 1891–
13. Zoroastric, adj. a1739–
14. Zoroastrism, n. 1819–
15. zorrino, n. 1885–
16. zorro, n. 1838–
17. zos-grass, n. 1937–
18. zoster, n. 1601–
19. zostera, n. 1819–
20. zosterops, n. 1867–
21. Zouave, n. 1848–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by derivation.
Etymons: Zoroastrian adj., ‑ism suffix.
< Zoroastrian adj. + ‑ism suffix.

Compare earlier Zoroastrism n.

## Meaning & use

1. 1832–
   A religious system originating in ancient Persia (now Iran), maintaining a dualistic doctrine which contrasts the force of good in the world with that of evil, and predicts the ultimate defeat of evil by good. Cf. Zarathustrianism n.
   Zoroastrianism is based on the teachings of the ancient Persian prophet, Zoroaster (also called Zarathustra), said to have lived at some point between the middle of the first and second millennia b.c. The sacred scriptures of the religion (see Avesta n.) contain elements attributed to Zoroaster himself (see Gatha n.). It was the dominant religion of Persia from the 6th cent. b.c. until the rise of Islam and was subsequently preserved predominantly amongst the descendants of Zoroastrian Persians who fled to India after the Islamic conquest (see Parsee n. A.1).
   1. 1832

      > At the period alluded to, and for a long time antecedent to the epoch of the Jewish captivity, we have according to Volney, the high antiquity assignable to the principles and tenets of Zoroastrianism.

      R. J. Rowe, Diss. Ruins or Revol. of Empires xvii. 227
   2. 1871

      > The ancient Zoroastrianism of the undivided Iranian race appears as a pure monotheistic religion, opposed alike to pantheism and polytheism.

      P. Smith, Ancient History of East xviii. 386
   3. 1941

      > He took from Zoroastrianism cosmic and eschatological principles, and from Indian teaching the ascetic ordering of life.

      A. C. Bouquet, Comparative Religion xi. 216
   4. 2021

      > Interactions with Buddhism, Hinduism, and Zoroastrianism had in turn a deep influence on Mediterranean Islamicate cultures.

      L. Saif in E. Asprem & J. Strube, New Approaches to Study of Esotericism 68
   ancient history religion
   1. Zoroastrism 1819–
      = Zoroastrianism, n.
   2. Zoroastrianism 1832–
      A religious system originating in ancient Persia (now Iran), maintaining a dualistic doctrine which contrasts the force of good in the world with…
   3. Parseeism 1843–
      The religion of the Parsees; Zoroastrianism.
   4. Parsism 1849–
      = Parseeism, n.
   5. Zarathustrianism 1864–
      A religious system originating in ancient Persia (now Iran), maintaining a dualistic doctrine which contrasts the force of light and good in the…
   6. Mazdaism 1871–
      Zoroastrianism.
   7. Zarathustrism 1871–
      = Zoroastrianism, n. Cf. Zarathustrianism, n.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˌzɒrəʊˈastriənɪz(ə)m/
zorr-oh-ASS-tree-uh-niz-uhm

### U.S. English

/ˌzɔroʊˈæstriəˌnɪzəm/
zor-oh-ASS-tree-uh-niz-uhm

###
Variant: Zoroasterianism

### British English

/ˌzɒrəʊˌaˈstɪəriənɪz(ə)m/
zorr-oh-ass-TEER-ee-uh-niz-uhm

### U.S. English

/ˌzɔroʊˌæˈstɪriəˌnɪzəm/
zor-oh-ass-TEER-ee-uh-niz-uhm

####

##### 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

## Forms

### Variant forms

1. 1800s–
   Zoroasterianism ( British English /ˌzɒrəʊˌaˈstɪəriənɪz(ə)m/ (zorr-oh-ass-TEER-ee-uh-niz-uhm) , U.S. English /ˌzɔroʊˌæˈstɪriəˌnɪzəm/ (zor-oh-ass-TEER-ee-uh-niz-uhm) ), Zoroastrianism

## Frequency

Zoroastrianism typically occurs about 0.3 times per million words in modern written English.

Zoroastrianism is in frequency band 4, which contains words occurring between 0.1 and 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 Zoroastrianism, n., 1850–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1850 | 0.081
1860 | 0.1
1870 | 0.13
1880 | 0.16
1890 | 0.21
1900 | 0.24
1910 | 0.27
1920 | 0.29
1930 | 0.31
1940 | 0.32
1950 | 0.32
1960 | 0.3
1970 | 0.31
1980 | 0.32
1990 | 0.32
2000 | 0.32
2010 | 0.34

Zoroastrianism, n. was revised in March 2023.

Zoroastrianism, n. was last modified in July 2023.