Zambian, adj. & n.

zambian
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zambian_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2022

# Zambianadjective & noun

## Earlier version

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

## Factsheet

### What does the word Zambian mean?

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

### How common is the word Zambian?

About 0.6occurrences per million words in modern written English

1950 | 0.45
1960 | 0.53
1970 | 0.53
1980 | 0.63
1990 | 0.69
2000 | 0.58
2010 | 0.52

### How is the word Zambian pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzambiən/
ZAM-bee-uhn

#### U.S. English

/ˈzæmbiən/
ZAM-bee-uhn

### Where does the word Zambian come from?

Earliest known use

1950s

The earliest known use of the word Zambian is in the 1950s.

OED's earliest evidence for Zambian is from 1959, in New York Times.

From a proper name, combined with an English element.

Etymons: proper name Zambia, ‑an suffix.

### Nearby entries

1. Zakka Khel, n. 1860–
2. zakuska, n. 1885–
3. zalambdodont, adj. 1885–
4. zalcitabine, n. 1991–
5. zamacueca, n. 1855–
6. Zamak, n. 1926–
7. zamang, n. 1819–
8. zamarra, n. 1841–
9. zama zama, n. 2006–
10. Zamazim, n. a1400–
11. Zambian, adj. & n.1959–
12. Zambianization, n. 1964–
13. Zambianize, v. 1964–
14. zambo, n. 1819–
15. Zamboni, n. 1965–
16. zambra, n. 1672–
17. zambuk, n. 1906–
18. zamburak, n. 1825–
19. zami, n. 1977–
20. Zamia, n. 1819–
21. zamindar, n. 1683–

## Etymology

### Summary

From a proper name, combined with an English element.
Etymons: proper name Zambia, ‑an suffix.
< Zambia, the name of a country in East Africa (see note) + ‑an suffix…
< Zambia, the name of a country in East Africa (see note) + ‑an suffix.

### Notes

The name of the country was proposed several years prior to independence and used by the independence movement (compare quot. 1959 at sense A). It is formed < Zamb- (in the name of the Zambezi river, itself of uncertain origin) + ‑ia suffix1.

## Meaning & use

1. adjective
   1. 1959–
      Of, belonging to, or relating to the East African country of Zambia or its inhabitants.
      Formerly the British protectorate of Northern Rhodesia, Zambia became an independent nation in 1964.
      1. 1959

         > The Northern Rhodesian Government banned the Zambian African National Congress.

         New York Times 17 March 7/3
      2. 1970

         > We found ourselves on the Zambian side of the lake.

         Cape Times 28 October 2/5
      3. 2019

         > Reuben was holding the ceremonial spear aloft... Fortunate was busily waving the Zambian flag.

         N. Serpell, Old Drift (e-book edition)
      1. Zambian 1959–
         Of, belonging to, or relating to the East African country of Zambia or its inhabitants.
      2. Zimbabwean 1961–
         Of, belonging to, or relating to the East African country of Zimbabwe or its inhabitants.
      3. Botswanan 1967–
         Of or relating to Botswana.
      4. Botswanian 1967–
         = Botswanan, adj.
      View in Historical Thesaurus
      1. Angolan 1625–
         Of or relating to Angola or its inhabitants.
      2. South African 1787–
         Of or relating to southern Africa or its inhabitants; (now) spec. of or relating to South Africa or its inhabitants.
      3. Malay 1811–
         Of, relating to, or characteristic of the Cape Malays.
      4. Ciskeian 1848–
         Of or relating to the Ciskei, a territory on the south-eastern coast of South Africa, or its inhabitants. Cf. Transkei, n.
      5. Zambian 1959–
         Of, belonging to, or relating to the East African country of Zambia or its inhabitants.
      6. Zimbabwean 1961–
         Of, belonging to, or relating to the East African country of Zimbabwe or its inhabitants.
      7. Namibian 1968–
         Of or relating to Namibia or its inhabitants.
      8. Sowetan 1977–
         Of or relating to Soweto or its inhabitants; native to or residing in Soweto.
      View in Historical Thesaurus
2. noun
   1. 1963–
      A native or inhabitant of Zambia.
      1. 1963

         > Zambia is a dream of a young man who believes he will one day rule Zambia for the Zambians.

         Contemporary Review June 293
      2. 1977

         > Everyone had learned to freeze into silence the moment the Zambian made pronouncements.

         ‘O. Jacks’, Autumn Heroes xiv. 207
      3. 2019

         > At the end of the day, we are Zambians before we are politicians.

         Zambian Eye (Nexis) 29 November
      1. Angolan 1600–
         A native or inhabitant of Angola.
      2. Angola 1653–
         As a modifier. Designating people or things originating from or belonging to Angola in south-western Africa. Cf. Angolan, adj.
      3. Malay 1765–
         In South Africa: a member of the Muslim community of Cape Town and adjoining districts (chiefly descendants of immigrants and slaves from…
      4. South African 1806–
         A native or inhabitant of southern Africa; (now) spec. a native or inhabitant of South Africa.
      5. bush boy 1822–
         Usually with capital initial. A boy or young man who is a member of any of various Indigenous peoples of southern Africa, esp. of the Kalahari… See also bushman, n. A.1a, which appears to be the model for this term. The term Bushman is sometimes considered derogatory or offensive. The term San (San, n.² A.1) has sometimes been seen as a preferable alternative; however, both terms are originally exonyms applied to many distinct peoples viewed as having a similar way of life, based on hunting and foraging, in contradistinction to peoples engaged in herding or farming. The peoples included in this grouping usually each refer to themselves with a more specific name, such as !Xun, Khwe, Tswha, etc.
      6. Ngwaketse a1832–
         A member of a southern African people inhabiting Botswana. Also as adj.
      7. Kapenaar 1834–
         An inhabitant of Cape Town or of the Cape Peninsula and its environs.
      8. Transkeian 1847–
         A native or inhabitant of Transkei, a region situated on the east coast of South Africa to the north-east of the River Kei; spec. (under…
      9. bosch-man 1849–
         = bushman, n. & adj. (the word used in Holland, however, is boschjesman).
      10. Natalian 1850–
          A native or inhabitant of Natal, or (now) of KwaZulu-Natal.
      11. burgher 1879–
          South African. A Dutch-speaking citizen of the Cape Colony, the Natal or Transvaal (South African) Republics, or the Orange Free State before the…
      12. Transvaaler 1887–
          A native or inhabitant of the Transvaal.
      13. veldman 1895–
          One skilled in living or hunting on the veldt.
      14. Griqualander 1897–
          A Griqua; (also) an inhabitant of Griqualand East or Griqualand West.
      15. Rhodesian 1897–
          A native or inhabitant of Rhodesia, esp. a white one.
      16. Vaalpens 1899–
          colloquial. A nickname for: (a) An Afrikaner; (b) a Transvaaler.
      17. backvelder 1911–
          A dweller in the backveld.
      18. plattelander 1934–
          A native or inhabitant of a rural area.
      19. southwester 1960–
          Frequently with capital initial(s). A white inhabitant of Namibia.
      20. Zimbabwean 1961–
          A native or inhabitant of Zimbabwe.
      21. Zambian 1963–
          A native or inhabitant of Zambia.
      22. Botswanian 1966–
          = Botswanan, n.
      23. Botswanan 1967–
          A native or inhabitant of the republic of Botswana.
      24. Namibian 1968–
          A native or inhabitant of Namibia.
      25. Ciskeian 1973–
          A native or inhabitant of the Ciskei; spec. (under apartheid) a citizen of the Republic of Ciskei (1981–94) (now historical).
      26. Sowetan 1974–
          A native or inhabitant of Soweto.
      View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzambiən/
ZAM-bee-uhn

### U.S. English

/ˈzæmbiən/
ZAM-bee-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

## Frequency

Zambian typically occurs about 0.6 times per million words in modern written English.

Zambian is in frequency band 4, which contains words occurring between 0.1 and 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 Zambian, adj. & n., 1950–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1950 | 0.45
1960 | 0.53
1970 | 0.53
1980 | 0.63
1990 | 0.69
2000 | 0.58
2010 | 0.52

### Frequency of Zambian, adj. & n., 2017–2024

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Modern frequency series are derived from a corpus of 20 billion words, covering the period from 2017 to the present. The corpus is mainly compiled from online news sources, and covers all major varieties of World English.

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 corpus.

Period | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
2017 | 0.35
2018 | 0.33
2019 | 0.34
2020 | 0.34
2021 | 0.33
2022 | 0.32
2023 | 0.33
2024 | 0.32

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. Zambianization, n. 1964–
   The policy of replacing non-Zambian citizens…

1. Zambianize, v. 1964–
   transitive. To make Zambian in character…

Zambian, adj. & n. was revised in June 2022.

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