Zetlandic, adj.

zetlandic
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zetlandic_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# Zetlandicadjective

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective Zetlandic mean?

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

### How common is the adjective Zetlandic?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1800 | 0.0022
1810 | 0.0018
1820 | 0.0015
1830 | 0.0017
1840 | 0.0017
1850 | 0.002
1860 | 0.0017
1870 | 0.0018
1880 | 0.0018
1890 | 0.0018
1900 | 0.0014
1910 | 0.0006
1920 | 0.0002
1930 | 0.0002
1940 | 0.00008
1950 | 0.00006
1960 | 0.00006
1970 | 0.00006
1980 | 0.00002
1990 | 0.00003
2000 | 0.00004
2010 | 0.000007

### Where does the adjective Zetlandic come from?

Earliest known use

early 1700s

The earliest known use of the adjective Zetlandic is in the early 1700s.

OED's earliest evidence for Zetlandic is from 1701, in the writing of John Brand, Church of Scotland minister and author.

### Nearby entries

1. zeta function, n. 1879–
2. zeta-ic, adj. 1840–1927
3. zeta potential, n. 1927–
4. zetetic, adj. & n. 1645–
5. zetetical, adj. & n. 1646–
6. zetetically, adv. 1665–
7. Zetetical Society, n. 1881–
8. zetetics, n. 1843–
9. Zetland, n. 1577–
10. Zetlander, n. 1614–
11. Zetlandic, adj.1701–
12. zetta-, comb. form
13. Zeuglodon, n. 1839–
14. zeuglodont, n. & adj. 1850–
15. zeuglodontoid, adj. & n. 1891
16. zeugma, n. c1450–
17. zeugmatic, adj. 1851–
18. zeugmatical, adj. 1610–
19. zeugmatically, adv. 1616–
20. zeugmatogram, n. 1973–
21. zeugmatographic, adj. 1973–

## Meaning & use

Now rare.

1. 1701–
   Of, belonging to, or relating to the Shetland Islands; cf. Shetlandic adj.
   Stressed as Zetˈlandic.
   1. 1701

      > Zetland..is unknown to the most of the Nation, if not, that they have only heard, there were such Isles, as the Zetlandick.

      J. Brand, Brief Description of Orkney, Zetland To Reader
   2. 1813

      > In addition to the Zetlandic name of Lyre, Lyar or Lyrie, it has acquired the Norwegian names of Skrabe or Skraap.

      G. Montagu, Supplement to Ornithological Dictionary at Shearwater
   3. 1868

      > A list of the Zetlandic Annelids dredged in 1867 and 1868.

      Reports of British Association i. 338
   4. 1902

      > Those who have watched hundreds of porpoises feeding on the shores of the Zetlandic bays [etc.].

      Harper's Magazine May 962/2
   5. 2013

      > The decision to shoot the bulk of the two-parter in mainland locations doubling as the windswept Zetlandic archipelago raised one or two eyebrows.

      Daily Record (Glasgow) 2 March (Saturday section) 4/1
   1. Orkney 1491–
      Of, belonging to, or relating to the Orkney Islands; found or produced in Orkney.
   2. Hebridean 1606–
      Of or pertaining to the Hebrides, a group of islands off the west coast of Scotland.
   3. Orcadian 1633–
      Of, designating, or relating to the Orkney Islands.
   4. Zetlandic 1701–
      Of, belonging to, or relating to the Shetland Islands; cf. Shetlandic, adj.
   5. Hebrid 1748–
      = Hebridean, adj.
   6. Shetlandic 1815–
      Of, belonging to, relating to, or characteristic of the Shetland Islands, their people, or their language.
   7. Hebridal 1841–
   8. Lewisian 1859–
      Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Lewis: applied to the earlier of the two main groups of Pre-Cambrian rocks in NW. Scotland. Also absol., the…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

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

Zetlandic 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 Zetlandic, adj., 1800–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1800 | 0.0022
1810 | 0.0018
1820 | 0.0015
1830 | 0.0017
1840 | 0.0017
1850 | 0.002
1860 | 0.0017
1870 | 0.0018
1880 | 0.0018
1890 | 0.0018
1900 | 0.0014
1910 | 0.0006
1920 | 0.0002
1930 | 0.0002
1940 | 0.00008
1950 | 0.00006
1960 | 0.00006
1970 | 0.00006
1980 | 0.00002
1990 | 0.00003
2000 | 0.00004
2010 | 0.000007

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

Zetland, n. was revised in June 2018.