Zuñi, n.

zuni
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zuni_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1921; not fully revised

# Zuñinoun

## Earlier version

- Zuñi in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun Zuñi mean?

There are two meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun Zuñi. 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 noun Zuñi?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1860 | 0.014
1870 | 0.011
1880 | 0.0099
1890 | 0.0089
1900 | 0.0091
1910 | 0.011
1920 | 0.01
1930 | 0.0045
1940 | 0.0054
1950 | 0.0051
1960 | 0.0051
1970 | 0.0059
1980 | 0.0053
1990 | 0.0059
2000 | 0.0062
2010 | 0.006

### How is the noun Zuñi pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzuːnji/

### Where does the noun Zuñi come from?

Earliest known use

1830s

The earliest known use of the noun Zuñi is in the 1830s.

OED's earliest evidence for Zuñi is from 1834, in the writing of Albert Pike.

### Nearby entries

1. zule | zulis, n. 1780–
2. Zulu, n. & adj. 1824–
3. Zulu, v. 1882–
4. Zuludom, n. 1867–
5. Zulu hat, n. 1879–
6. Zuluize, v. 1852–
7. Zulu time, n. 1959–
8. zumbador, n. 1758–64
9. zumbi, n. 1704–
10. zumboorukchee, n. 1840–
11. Zuñi, n.1834–
12. zunyite, n. 1885–
13. zuppa, n. 1961–
14. Zurich, n. 1870–
15. Zuricher, n. 1673–
16. zurla, n. 1940–
17. zurlite, n. 1826–
18. zurna, n. 1870–
19. zurr, n. 1803–
20. zussmanite, n. 1965–
21. zut, int. 1915–

## Meaning & use

1. 1. a.
      1834–
      A member of a Pueblo people inhabiting the valley of the Zuñi, New Mexico. Also Zuni Indian.
      1. 1834

         > The Moqui (pronounced Mokee,) and the Suni (Sunee) live near the Nabajo.

         A. Pike, Prose Sketches & Poems 200
      2. 1853

         > The cornfields of the Zuni Indians extend..for several miles.

         L. Sitgreaves, Report of Expedition Zuñi & Colorado Rivers 5
      3. 1883

         > Zūni food prepared in Zūni fashion.

         Century Magazine vol. 25 201
      4. 1883

         > The domestic life of the Zūnis.

         Century Magazine vol. 25 202/1
      5. 1898

         > In the Zuñi hymn we have the myth of the marriage of Heaven and Earth.

         A. Lang, Making of Religion xiv. 275
      6. 1910

         > Fray Martin de Arvide..was killed by 5 Zuñi.

         F. W. Hodge, Handbook of American Indians vol. II. 1017/1
      7. 1929

         > Among these Pueblo tribes we find..the Zuñi, who called themselves Ashiwi, Zuñi being a Spanish adaptation of Sunyitsi, the Keresan name for this tribe.

         American Speech vol. 5 115
      8. 1937

         > Among the Zuñi Indians..individuals are not led into the kind of temptation which invites the men of our civilization to work for fame, wealth, social position or power.

         A. Huxley, Ends & Means iii. 20
      9. 1960

         > The Zuni Indians played another game on the roof-tops called Kolowis Awithlaknannai.

         R. C. Bell, Board & Table Games ii. 49
      10. 1969

          > Marvellous chokers, from the Zuni of the southwest.

          Vogue November 30/2
      1. Moqui 1759–
         A member of an Indigenous people, usually called the Hopi (see Hopi, n.).
      2. Pima 1829–
         A member of the Pima people. Cf. Papago, n. B.1.
      3. pueblo 1834–
         In form Pueblo. A member of any of a number of Indigenous peoples who traditionally lived in communal dwellings (typically multi-storey, flat-roofed…
      4. Zuñi 1834–
         A member of a Pueblo people inhabiting the valley of the Zuñi, New Mexico. Also Zuni Indian.
      5. Papago 1839–
         A member of the Papago people.
      6. Pueblo Indian 1844–
         A member of any of a number of Indigenous peoples who traditionally lived in communal dwellings (typically multi-storey, flat-roofed structures…
      7. Taos 1844–
         Used attributively (occasionally absol.) to designate members of a Pueblo people living in Taos, New Mexico, or the language of this people, a…
      8. Mimbres 1859–
         The Mimbreño Apache people of south-western New Mexico. Cf. Mimbreño, n. Now historical.
      9. Pueblan 1875–
         = Puebloan, n.
      10. Hopi 1877–
          An Indigenous people belonging to the Pueblo group, living mainly in north-eastern Arizona; a member of this people; the Uto-Aztecan language of…
      11. Picuris 1883–
          A member of the Pueblo people of Picuris. Usually in plural.
      12. Puebloan 1883–
          A member of a Pueblo people, any of a number of Indigenous peoples who traditionally lived in communal dwellings (typically multi-storey…
      13. Tanoan 1891–
          A small language family comprising a number of languages spoken by Pueblo peoples in the south-western United States, including Tewa and Tiwas…
      14. Piman 1900–
          A member of an ethnic and linguistic group including the Pimas and Papago.
      15. Tewa 1910–
          The Tanoan language of this people.
      16. Keres 1925–
          An Indigenous people mainly inhabiting parts of New Mexico, belonging to the Pueblo group of peoples.
      17. Tohono O'odham 1987–
          A member of the Tohono O'odham people; = Papago, n. B.1.
      View in Historical Thesaurus
   2. b.
      1882–
      The language of this people.
      1. 1882

         > Then I spoke in Zuñi.

         Atlantic Monthly September 367/2
      2. 1932

         > Extinct languages, such as Zuñi and Spanish and Athapascan.

         A. Huxley, Brave New World vi. 120
      3. 1956

         > Color-recognition tests were given to both Zuni and English speakers.

         J. Lotz in S. Saporta & J. R. Bastian, Psycholinguistics (1961) 12/2
      4. 1972

         > His list can be supplemented from..Yuma, Zuni.

         Language vol. 48 847
      1. Miwok 1873–
         Any of the languages spoken by the Miwok peoples; these languages collectively or the grouping they constitute, a branch of the Miwok–Costanoan (or…
      2. Mutsun 1877–85
         The Utian (Miwok-Costanoan) language family, wholly or in part. Obsolete.
      3. Takelma 1881–
         A (now extinct) North American language spoken in south-western Oregon.
      4. Zuñi 1882–
         The language of this people.
      5. Yokuts 1887–
         The family of languages spoken by the Yokuts; any of these languages.
      6. Yawelmani 1907–
         The Yokuts language of this people.
      7. Yokutsan 1956–
         The family of languages spoken by the Yokuts; any of these languages; = Yokuts, n. A.2.
      View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzuːnji/

####

##### 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 Zuni. Plural usually Zuñi.

## Frequency

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

Zuñi 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 Zuñi, n., 1860–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1860 | 0.014
1870 | 0.011
1880 | 0.0099
1890 | 0.0089
1900 | 0.0091
1910 | 0.011
1920 | 0.01
1930 | 0.0045
1940 | 0.0054
1950 | 0.0051
1960 | 0.0051
1970 | 0.0059
1980 | 0.0053
1990 | 0.0059
2000 | 0.0062
2010 | 0.006

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. Zuñian, adj. 1885–

Zuñi, n. was first published in 1921; not fully revised.

Zuñi, n. was last modified in December 2024.