zeze, n.

zeze
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zeze_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# zezenoun

## Earlier version

- zeze in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zeze mean?

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

### How common is the noun zeze?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1850 | 0.003
1860 | 0.0028
1870 | 0.0025
1880 | 0.0023
1890 | 0.0023
1900 | 0.0011
1910 | 0.0009
1920 | 0.0008
1930 | 0.0007
1940 | 0.0007
1950 | 0.0008
1960 | 0.0009
1970 | 0.001
1980 | 0.0011
1990 | 0.0012
2000 | 0.0012
2010 | 0.0012

### How is the noun zeze pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzeɪzeɪ/
ZAY-zay

#### U.S. English

/ˈzeɪˌzeɪ/
ZAY-zay

### Where does the noun zeze come from?

Earliest known use

1860s

The earliest known use of the noun zeze is in the 1860s.

OED's earliest evidence for zeze is from 1860, in a paper by Richard Burton, explorer and author.

zeze is a borrowing from Swahili.

Etymons: Swahili zeze.

### Nearby entries

1. zeugmatographic, adj. 1973–
2. zeugmatography, n. 1973–
3. zeunerite, n. 1873–
4. Zeus, n.¹ 1587–
5. Zeus, n.² 1601–
6. Zeus-like, adj. & adv. 1850–
7. Zeuxian, adj. 1635–
8. Zeuxis, n. 1577–
9. Zeuxis-like, adj. 1665–
10. zeuxite, n. 1836–
11. zeze, n.1860–
12. Zhdanovism, n. 1958–
13. Zhdanovist, adj. 1966–
14. Zhdanovite, adj. 1957–
15. zho, n. 1841–
16. zhomo, n. 1841–
17. zhuyin zimu, n. 1938–
18. zhuzh, n. 1968–
19. zhuzh, v. 1970–
20. zhuzhy, adj. 1968–
21. ziamet, n. 1807–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Swahili.
Etymon: Swahili zeze.
< Swahili zeze (pronounced /ˈzɛzɛ/ …
< Swahili zeze (pronounced /ˈzɛzɛ/ ).

### Notes

The form tzetze may reflect a cognate in a related language.

## Meaning & use

1. 1860–
   A stringed instrument of eastern and central Africa.
   The shape, size, construction, and manner of playing of the instrument have varied over time and according to geographical location.
   1. 1860

      > A combination of the zeze and kinanda is made by binding a dwarf hollow box.

      R. F. Burton in Journal Royal Geogr. Society 1859 vol. 29 371
   2. 1874

      > The jantar is identical with the tzetze of Zanzibar and the herrauou of Madagascar, but it has two strings.

      C. Engel, Descriptive Catalogue of Musical Instruments in South Kensington Museum (ed. 2) 162
   3. 1918

      > Zeze, or Sese. One string. Three frets. No resonator.

      A. A. Stanley, Catalogue Stearns Coll. Musical Instruments 137
   4. 1978

      > A member of the Tanzania National Dance Troupe playing a 13-string zeze.

      Times 19 August 3/3 (caption)
   5. 2011

      > The guitar resembled the zeze of the Wagogo peoples.

      A. Perullo, Live from Dar es Salaam ii. 45
   music
   1. zither 1831–
      A musical instrument of central European origin, having four or five strings over a fretboard for sounding the melody and thirty to forty…
   2. qin 1839–
      A Chinese seven-stringed zither, played by plucking.
   3. zeze 1860–
      A stringed instrument of eastern and central Africa.
   4. valiha?1866–
      A type of zither, typically tubular and traditionally made from bamboo, regarded as the national instrument of Madagascar.
   5. cither 1871–
      Any of various plucked stringed instruments similar in form to, or believed to have derived from, the cithara; (in later use) esp. a zither.
   6. se 1874–
      A twenty-five-stringed plucked musical instrument, somewhat similar to the zither.
   7. autoharp 1882–
      A type of zither fitted with a series of sprung and padded bars which dampen selected strings when activated, allowing chords to be played easily.
   8. zither banjo 1888–
      A type of five-stringed banjo with a closed back and a headstock like that of a guitar, the fifth string running through a tube in the neck from…
   9. gusli 1893–
      A Russian musical instrument resembling a zither.
   10. langeleik 1907–
       An early Norwegian stringed instrument, resembling the zither.
   11. kantele 1921–
       A form of zither used in Finland and Karelia.
   12. Scheitholt 1961–
       A former stringed instrument of central Europe, a precursor of the zither.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzeɪzeɪ/
ZAY-zay

### U.S. English

/ˈzeɪˌzeɪ/
ZAY-zay

####

##### 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–
   tzetze, zeze
2. 1900s–
   sese

## Frequency

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

zeze 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 zeze, 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 | 0.003
1860 | 0.0028
1870 | 0.0025
1880 | 0.0023
1890 | 0.0023
1900 | 0.0011
1910 | 0.0009
1920 | 0.0008
1930 | 0.0007
1940 | 0.0007
1950 | 0.0008
1960 | 0.0009
1970 | 0.001
1980 | 0.0011
1990 | 0.0012
2000 | 0.0012
2010 | 0.0012

zeze, n. was revised in June 2018.

zeze, n. was last modified in December 2024.