zeep, n.

zeep
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zeep_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 2018

# zeepnoun (& interjection)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zeep mean?

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

### How common is the noun zeep?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1870 | 0.0019
1880 | 0.0022
1890 | 0.0022
1900 | 0.0021
1910 | 0.0027
1920 | 0.0031
1930 | 0.0033
1940 | 0.0027
1950 | 0.0025
1960 | 0.0023
1970 | 0.0023
1980 | 0.0017
1990 | 0.0015
2000 | 0.0013
2010 | 0.0012

### How is the noun zeep pronounced?

#### British English

/ziːp/
zeep

#### U.S. English

/zip/
zeep

### Where does the noun zeep come from?

Earliest known use

1870s

The earliest known use of the noun zeep is in the 1870s.

OED's earliest evidence for zeep is from 1878, in Gleanings Bee Culture.

zeep is an imitative or expressive formation.

### Nearby entries

1. Zechstein, n. 1798–
2. zed, n. c1175–
3. zedbed, n. 1954–
4. zedoary, n. Old English–
5. zedonk, n. 1961–
6. zee, n. 1580–
7. Zeelander, n. c1400–
8. Zeelandic, adj. 1802–
9. Zeelandish, adj. 1593–
10. Zeeman, n. 1897–
11. zeep, n.1878–
12. zeep, v. 1886–
13. zeeping, adj. 1895–
14. zef, adj. 1990–
15. zegadine, n. 1651–
16. zeilanite, n. 1815–
17. zein, n. 1820–
18. Zeiss, n. 1876–
19. zeitgeber, n. 1958–
20. zeitgeist, n. 1848–
21. zeitgeisty, adj. 1966–

## Etymology

### Summary

An imitative or expressive formation.
Imitative.

Compare later zeep v. and zeeping adj. Compare also slightly earlier zip n.1

## Meaning & use

1. 1878–
   A high-pitched noise like that produced by friction or something travelling at speed. Also as int. (frequently reduplicated).
   Chiefly used with reference to sounds made by birds or insects.
   1. 1878

      > As soon as the cages touched the bees they [sc. the bees] made a ‘zeep’.

      Gleanings Bee Culture April 110/2
   2. 1908

      > The bush sparrow stood out vividly... ‘Zeep,’ ‘zeep,’ came out of the dimness.

      J. Burroughs, Leaf & Tendril vi. 120
   3. 1965

      > Females of all three [warbler] species give Chips and Zeeps..which probably keep the male aware of the female's presence and location.

      Wilson Bulletin vol. 77 371
   4. a1974

      > One hears the soft zeep-zeep of bullets whispering by.

      E. E. Mackin, Suddenly we didn't want to Die (1993) i. 56
   5. 1992

      > Another common katydid that tried my patience was..the Fork-Tailed... His sharp two- or four-syllable zeep rang out above the background noises at long irregular intervals.

      V. G. Dethier, Crickets & Katydids, Concerts & Solos 90
   6. 2011

      > The [cricket] song is a series of high, buzzy ‘zeeps’.

      J. Himmelman, Cricket Radio v. 79

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ziːp/
zeep

### U.S. English

/zip/
zeep

####

##### 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 reduplicated.

## Frequency

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

zeep 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 zeep, n., 1870–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1870 | 0.0019
1880 | 0.0022
1890 | 0.0022
1900 | 0.0021
1910 | 0.0027
1920 | 0.0031
1930 | 0.0033
1940 | 0.0027
1950 | 0.0025
1960 | 0.0023
1970 | 0.0023
1980 | 0.0017
1990 | 0.0015
2000 | 0.0013
2010 | 0.0012

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. zeep, v. 1886–
   intransitive. To produce a high-pitched noise…

zeep, n. was first published in June 2018.

zeep, n. was last modified in July 2023.