Zepp, v.

zepp
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zepp_v%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2014

# Zeppverb

## Factsheet

### What does the verb Zepp mean?

There are two meanings listed in OED's entry for the verb Zepp. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

### How common is the verb Zepp?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1910 | 0.01
1920 | 0.0092
1930 | 0.0085
1940 | 0.0081
1950 | 0.0075
1960 | 0.008
1970 | 0.0079
1980 | 0.0086
1990 | 0.0091
2000 | 0.0099
2010 | 0.011

### How is the verb Zepp pronounced?

#### British English

/zɛp/
zep

#### U.S. English

/zɛp/
zep

### Where does the verb Zepp come from?

Earliest known use

1910s

The earliest known use of the verb Zepp is in the 1910s.

OED's earliest evidence for Zepp is from 1914, in Aeronautics.

It is also recorded as a noun from the 1910s.

Zepp is formed within English, by clipping or shortening.

Etymons: zeppelin v.

### Nearby entries

1. zephyr-gale, n. 1596–1901
2. zephyrian, adj. 1661–
3. zephyrine, adj. & n. 1819–
4. zephyring, adj. 1821–
5. zephyrless, adj. a1821–
6. zephyr-like, adv. & adj. 1765–
7. zephyr lily, n.?1877–
8. zephyrous, adj. a1750–
9. zephyry, adj. 1791–
10. Zepp, n. 1914–
11. Zepp, v.1914–
12. Zeppelin, n. 1896–
13. zeppelin, v. 1910–
14. Zeppelined, adj. 1915–
15. Zeppelining, n. 1915–
16. Zeppelinist, n. 1912–
17. Zeppelinistic, adj. 1930–
18. Zeppelinite, n. 1909–
19. zeppole, n. 1835–
20. zepto-, comb. form
21. zeranol, n. 1971–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by clipping or shortening.
Shortened < zeppelin v.

Compare Zepp n.

## Meaning & use

colloquial. Now rare.

1. 1.
   1914–
   intransitive. Of a Zeppelin: to go on a bombing raid. rare.
   1. 1914

      > Cables tell of the frontier being patrolled by rival aeroplanes within easy sight of each other, of a Zeppelin having zepped over Liege during the bombardment, pursued by a Belgian aviator who lost his life in destroying it.

      Aeronautics 15 August 38/1
   colloquial and slang
2. 2.
   1915–
   transitive. = zeppelin v. 2.
   1. 1915

      > Since the Count's Zeps have been Zepping London, no self respecting Londoner has gone to bed in anything unfit for public gaze.

      Janesville (Wisconsin) Daily Gazette 10 November 9/6
   2. 1917

      > Have we been U-boated or Zepped? All right; I'll be there in two minutes.

      S. Ford, Wilt Thou Torchy xiv. 242
   3. 1920

      > ‘So you've been Zepped, I hear,’ she said.

      W. J. Locke, House of Baltazar vii. 83
   air force colloquial and slang
   1. Zepp 1915–
      transitive. = zeppelin, v. 2.
   2. zeppelin 1915–
      transitive. To drop bombs on from a Zeppelin; to destroy in a Zeppelin raid. Frequently in passive. Now historical.
   3. blitz 1939–
      transitive. To attack with a blitz; to hit, blast, destroy, etc., by an air-raid. Also intransitive.
   4. cluster bomb 1939–
      Originally: any of a large concentration of bombs dropped simultaneously or in quick succession, so as to cause extensive and widespread damage to…
   5. dive-bomb 1940–
      (transitive) to attack with bombs at a low level after diving.
   6. pattern-bomb 1943–
      transitive. To bomb (a target) from a number of aircraft in a predetermined pattern.
   7. atom-bomb 1945–
      transitive. To drop an atom bomb on.
   8. atomic-bomb 1945–
      transitive. = atom-bomb, v.
   9. firebomb 1945–
      transitive. To attack or destroy with firebombs or a firebomb. Also intransitive.
   10. cluster bomb 1953–
       transitive. To target or bomb (a place, etc.) with cluster bombs, with the aim of causing widespread damage as opposed to destroying a specific…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zɛp/
zep

### U.S. English

/zɛp/
zep

####

##### 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

Also with lower-case initial.

## Frequency

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

Zepp 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 Zepp, v., 1910–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1910 | 0.01
1920 | 0.0092
1930 | 0.0085
1940 | 0.0081
1950 | 0.0075
1960 | 0.008
1970 | 0.0079
1980 | 0.0086
1990 | 0.0091
2000 | 0.0099
2010 | 0.011

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

Zepp, v. was revised in June 2014.

Zepp, v. was last modified in March 2024.