Zairean, n. & adj.

zairean
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zairean_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1986; not fully revised

# Zaireannoun & adjective

## Earlier version

- Zairean, n. and a. in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the word Zairean mean?

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

#### Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

### How common is the word Zairean?

About 0.09occurrences per million words in modern written English

1970 | 0.093
1980 | 0.089
1990 | 0.089
2000 | 0.089
2010 | 0.1

### How is the word Zairean pronounced?

#### British English

/zʌɪˈɪəriən/
zigh-EER-ee-uhn
/zɑːˈɪəriən/
zah-EER-ee-uhn

#### U.S. English

/zaɪˈɪriən/
zigh-EER-ee-uhn

### Where does the word Zairean come from?

Earliest known use

1970s

The earliest known use of the word Zairean is in the 1970s.

OED's earliest evidence for Zairean is from 1972, in the Observer (London).

From a proper name, combined with English elements.

Etymons: proper name Zaïre, ‑an suffix, ‑ian suffix.

### Nearby entries

1. zag, n., adv., & v. 1793–
2. zagaie | zagaye, n. 1590–1698
3. Zaghlulist, n. & adj. 1921–
4. zaguan, n. 1851–
5. Zahal, n. 1959–
6. zaibatsu, n. 1937–
7. Zaidi, n. 1709–
8. zaikai, n. 1968–
9. zaim, n. 1807–
10. zaire, n. 1967–
11. Zairean, n. & adj.1972–
12. Zairese, adj. & n. 1974–
13. Zairois, n. & adj. 1973–
14. zaitech, n. 1986–
15. zakat, n. 1668–
16. Zakka Khel, n. 1860–
17. zakuska, n. 1885–
18. zalambdodont, adj. 1885–
19. zalcitabine, n. 1991–
20. zamacueca, n. 1855–
21. Zamak, n. 1926–

## Etymology

### Summary

From a proper name, combined with English elements.
Etymons: proper name Zaïre, ‑an suffix, ‑ian suffix.
< the name of the Republic of Zaïre (1971–97) (compare zaire n.) + ‑an suffix, ‑ian suffix.

## Meaning & use

1. noun
   1. 1972–
      A native or inhabitant of the Republic of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo).
      1. 1972

         > Dead victims..have been found dumped close to the frontier with Zaire... They were taken there by contract drivers, many of them Zaireans.

         Observer 19 November 2/1
      2. 1973

         > None of the young Zairians danced.

         Times 11 December (Zaire Supplement) p. vii/2
      3. 1977

         > Both the Moroccans and Zaireans are using their own planes to transport the troops.

         Times 12 April 13/1
      1. Guinean 1589–
         An inhabitant of Guinea.
      2. Kongo 1600–
         A member of a people living in the region along the lower Congo river; (also) this people; = Bakongo, n.
      3. Gambian 1744–
         A native or inhabitant of Gambia (see sense B.1.); a person of Gambian descent.
      4. Guinea Negro 1748–
         = Guinea-man, n. 3; also elliptical.
      5. Congoese 1765–
         A native or inhabitant of various geographical regions around the Congo river; (now) spec. a native or inhabitant of the Republic of the Congo or the…
      6. Sierra Leonean 1791–
         A person born or living in Sierra Leone; a person descended from people from Sierra Leone.
      7. Congolese 1800–
         A native or inhabitant of various geographical regions around the Congo river; (now) spec. a native or inhabitant of the Republic of the Congo or…
      8. Senegambian 1809–
         A native or inhabitant of a region in Western Africa surrounding the Senegal River and the Gambia River, known historically as Senegambia; (now…
      9. Liberian 1826–
         A native or inhabitant of Liberia. Cf. Americo-Liberian, n.
      10. Guinea-man 1830–
          A native of Guinea.
      11. Lagosian 1860–
          A person born or living in Lagos.
      12. Nigerian 1860–
          A native or inhabitant of Nigeria.
      13. Basenji 1906–
          With reference to the Congo basin: an Indigenous person who has not adopted European customs or converted to Christianity. Now historical.
      14. Ghanaian 1949–
          A native or inhabitant of Ghana, a West African state formerly known as the Gold Coast.
      15. assimilado 1953–
          In the former Portuguese colonies of Africa: an African who has been admitted to Portuguese citizenship. Also attributive.
      16. Upper Voltan 1955–
          A person born or living in Upper Volta; a person of Upper Voltan descent. Cf. Burkinabe, n., Voltaic, n. B.1b.
      17. Voltaic 1959–
          A speaker of a language in this branch of the Niger-Congo family, considered collectively. Chiefly in plural (also with unchanged plural).
      18. Mali 1960–
          = Malian, n.
      19. Malian 1960–
          A native or inhabitant of Mali, an ancient empire (of the 13th and 14th centuries) and a modern republic (founded in 1960) in West Africa; = Mali, n.³
      20. Voltaic 1960–
          A person born or living in Upper Volta in West Africa (now called Burkina Faso); a person of Upper Voltan descent. Cf. Burkinabe, n. Now historical.
      21. Katangese 1962–
          A native or inhabitant of the Congolese province of Katanga, or of the shortlived independent state of the same name (1960–3); esp. (historical) a…
      22. Biafran 1967–
          A native or inhabitant of Biafra.
      23. Zairean 1972–
          A native or inhabitant of the Republic of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo).
      24. Ivorian 1973–
          A native or inhabitant of the Ivory Coast.
      25. Zairois 1973–
          = Zairean, n. & adj.
      26. Zairese 1974–
          = Zairean, n. & adj. Cf. Zairois, n. & adj.
      27. Burkinabe 1984–
          A person born in the western African country of Burkina Faso (called Upper Volta before 1984); a descendant of people from Burkino Faso. Also with the…
      28. Naija 2000–
          A native or inhabitant of Nigeria; a person of Nigerian descent.
      View in Historical Thesaurus
2. adjective
   1. 1973–
      Of or relating to Zaire.
      1. 1973

         > The dollar value of this manpower is considerable and most of it is defrayed by the Zairian Government.

         Black World May 80
      2. 1973

         > Two British geologists yesterday described their fortnight's ordeal under armed Zairean Gendarme guards.

         Daily Telegraph 1 October 19
      3. 1977

         > The spokesman said that on Saturday two Zairean jets violated Zambian airspace.

         Daily Telegraph 14 April 1/8
      4. 1982

         > The logistic support of the Zairian army.

         S. Johnson, Marburg Virus x. 121
      1. Nigritian 1757–
         Originally: of, relating to, or characteristic of Nigritia. Also more generally, and in later use: black African or African American.
      2. Sudanic 1802–
         Of, belonging to, or relating to Sudan or its inhabitants; spec. to a proposed family of languages spoken in the Sahelian region of Africa, which…
      3. Sudanese 1853–
         Of, belonging to, or relating to Sudan or its inhabitants.
      4. Mozambican 1875–
         Of or relating to Mozambique or its inhabitants.
      5. Nigerian 1876–
         Of or relating to Nigeria or its inhabitants.
      6. Zanzibari 1884–
         Of, belonging to, or relating to Zanzibar or its inhabitants.
      7. Rhodesian 1892–
         Of, relating to, or from Rhodesia (see etymological note).
      8. Lagosian 1894–
         Of or relating to Lagos; (also) designating a person born or living in Lagos.
      9. Chadian 1960–
         Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Chad or its people.
      10. Katangese 1962–
          Of, relating to, or belonging to Katanga. Cf. Congolese, n. & adj.
      11. Tanzanian 1964–
          Of, belonging to, or relating to Tanzania or its inhabitants.
      12. Namibian 1968–
          Of or relating to Namibia or its inhabitants.
      13. Malawian 1970–
          Of or relating to Malawi or its inhabitants.
      14. Zairean 1973–
          Of or relating to Zaire.
      15. Zairois 1973–
          = Zairean, n. & adj.
      16. Zairese 1974–
          = Zairean, n. & adj. Cf. Zairois, n. & adj.
      View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zʌɪˈɪəriən/
zigh-EER-ee-uhn
/zɑːˈɪəriən/
zah-EER-ee-uhn

### U.S. English

/zaɪˈɪriən/
zigh-EER-ee-uhn

####

##### 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 Zairian.

## Frequency

Zairean typically occurs about 0.09 times per million words in modern written English.

Zairean is in frequency band 3, which contains words occurring between 0.01 and 0.1 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 Zairean, n. & adj., 1970–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1970 | 0.093
1980 | 0.089
1990 | 0.089
2000 | 0.089
2010 | 0.1

Zairean, n. & adj. was first published in 1986; not fully revised.

Zairean, n. & adj. was last modified in July 2023.