ziarat, n.

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

# ziaratnoun

## Earlier version

- ziarat in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun ziarat mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun ziarat. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, 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 noun ziarat?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1840 | 0.039
1850 | 0.034
1860 | 0.03
1870 | 0.028
1880 | 0.0071
1890 | 0.0081
1900 | 0.0087
1910 | 0.0084
1920 | 0.0066
1930 | 0.0053
1940 | 0.0053
1950 | 0.0052
1960 | 0.0048
1970 | 0.0053
1980 | 0.0059
1990 | 0.0065
2000 | 0.0072
2010 | 0.006

### How is the noun ziarat pronounced?

#### British English

/ziːˈɑːrət/

### Where does the noun ziarat come from?

Earliest known use

late 1700s

The earliest known use of the noun ziarat is in the late 1700s.

OED's earliest evidence for ziarat is from 1776, in a translation by Nathaniel Halhed, orientalist.

ziarat is a borrowing from Hindi.

### Nearby entries

1. Zhdanovism, n. 1958–
2. Zhdanovist, adj. 1966–
3. Zhdanovite, adj. 1957–
4. zho, n. 1841–
5. zhomo, n. 1841–
6. zhuyin zimu, n. 1938–
7. zhuzh, n. 1968–
8. zhuzh, v. 1970–
9. zhuzhy, adj. 1968–
10. ziamet, n. 1807–
11. ziarat, n.1776–
12. zibeline, n. 1585–
13. zibet, n. 1594–
14. zibet-muff, n. 1685
15. zibib, n. 1836–
16. ziczac, n. 1844–
17. zidovudine, n. 1987–
18. Ziegfeld, n. 1913–
19. Ziegler, n. 1957–
20. Ziegler-Natta, n. 1965–
21. Ziehl, n. 1892–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Hindi.
< Hindi < Urdu, < Arabic ziyārat pilgrimage.

## Meaning & use

1. 1776–
   A Muslim place of pilgrimage, a shrine; a pilgrimage to such a place.
   1. 1776

      > Places of zeeàrut (or religious Walks).

      N. B. Halhed, translation of Code of Gentoo Laws xii. 187
   2. 1913

      > This is said to occur frequently in the large shrines or Ziarats, such as Mashad.

      19th Century May 993
   3. 1916

      > A graphic tale of the manner in which his tribe had come by their first ziarut.

      M. Diver, Desmond's Daughter ii. ix. 121
   4. 1925

      > That is where my brothre lives, Sahib; he likes to be next to his Ziarat.

      Blackwood's Magazine December 796/2
   5. 1934

      > For the mass of the people the local ziarats have to suffice.

      N.-W. Frontier Province Gazetteer Peshawar Dist. (ed. 3) vol. I. i. 153
   6. 1967

      > At the appointed time, led by our group leader, we went for the ziarath (meeting the respected one).

      F. Rasul, Bengal to Birmingham vi. 61
   7. 1976

      > Monday, January 26: after Esha prayer Khatme Holy Quran, Khatme Gousia and Khatme Khajegan at 2 a.m. Zikir, Zearat and Munazat.

      Bangladesh Times 12 January 2/5
   religion
   1. ziarat 1776–
      A Muslim place of pilgrimage, a shrine; a pilgrimage to such a place.
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. station c1390–
      Christian Church (chiefly Roman Catholic Church). Each of a number of holy places visited by pilgrims, typically in fixed succession or at an…
   2. pilgrimage?a1425–
      A shrine, holy city, etc., to which pilgrims travel; a sacred place.
   3. pilgrimage church 1762–
   4. station chapel 1840–
      a. A chapel constituting one of a number of stations at which pilgrims worship (cf. station, n. III.19a); b. a chapel attached to a station (in…
   5. pilgrimage town 1889–
   6. ziarat 1913–
      A Muslim place of pilgrimage, a shrine; a pilgrimage to such a place.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ziːˈɑːrət/

####

##### 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.

## Forms

### Variant forms

Also 1700s zeearut; zearat, ziarath, ziarut.

## Frequency

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

ziarat 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 ziarat, n., 1840–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1840 | 0.039
1850 | 0.034
1860 | 0.03
1870 | 0.028
1880 | 0.0071
1890 | 0.0081
1900 | 0.0087
1910 | 0.0084
1920 | 0.0066
1930 | 0.0053
1940 | 0.0053
1950 | 0.0052
1960 | 0.0048
1970 | 0.0053
1980 | 0.0059
1990 | 0.0065
2000 | 0.0072
2010 | 0.006

ziarat, n. was first published in 1986; not fully revised.

ziarat, n. was last modified in December 2024.