There are two meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun zealousy, one of which is labelled obsolete. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.
How common is the noun zealousy?
Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English
1760
0.0046
1770
0.0051
1780
0.0044
1790
0.004
1800
0.0042
1810
0.0046
1820
0.004
1830
0.0037
1840
0.0028
1850
0.0033
1860
0.0033
1870
0.0024
1880
0.0021
1890
0.002
1900
0.0015
1910
0.0014
1920
0.001
1930
0.0008
1940
0.0008
1950
0.0009
1960
0.0007
1970
0.0006
1980
0.0007
1990
0.0006
2000
0.0005
2010
0.0005
How is the noun zealousy pronounced?
British English
/ˈzɛləsi/
ZEL-uh-see
U.S. English
/ˈzɛləsi/
ZEL-uh-see
Where does the noun zealousy come from?
Earliest known use
mid 1500s
The earliest known use of the noun zealousy is in the mid 1500s.
OED's earliest evidence for zealousy is from 1542, in a translation by Nicholas Udall, schoolmaster and playwright.
Whiche grudges;..the zelousie, and the eagre feersenes of Olympias did augmente.
N. Udall in translation of Erasmus, Apophthegmesii. f. 177v
1598
Or Zelozie of wife, or Sons suspect, or dout of frind.
Queen Elizabeth I, translation of Plutarch, De Curiositate in Queen Elizabeth's Englishings (1899) 126/25
1656
The Lover that doth charme you and for whom you burn, is not so to you as you'd have him, an evil humour, or a little zealousie [French jalousie], may banish him your good opinion.
W. Lower, translation of P. Corneille, Horatiusiii. iv. 33
They to whom God hath gyuen the greater giftes, & whom he hath called to higher romes, are most bounde to be zealous for Gods glory, with godly zelousie to profit the Church & spouse of Christ vnder their charge.
W. Turner, Hunting of Fox & Wolfe (new edition) sig. A.ii
1597
His armour zelousie, his breast-plate heauen.
T. Middleton, Wisdome of Solomon Paraphrased v. sig. G2v
1659
My zeal for you is good, and in a good thing, and constant, when I am absent, as well as present: The zealousie of my Emulators concerning you is perverse and counterfeit: Therefore return yee to my Doctrine.
W. Retchford, translation of D. Dickson, Exposition of St. Pauls Epistles iv. 101/2
1833
The zealousy of each sect, for its own respectibility [sic] and success.
Z. Barstow, Sermon 10
1896
His remarks were certainly of a generous character considering the zealousy of his late candidacy.
Delphi (Indiana) Journal 9 April
1919
No moral zealousy could have worked the miracle which these business men have wrought.
W. G. Fitz-Gerald, America's Day (new edition) vii. 108
2015
With zealousy they devised new inventions to please the council.
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.
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.
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
1500s
zelosie, zelousie, zelousye, zelozie
1600s
zealousie
1800s–
zealousy
Frequency
zealousy typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.
zealousy is in frequency band 1, which contains words occurring fewer than 0.001 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 zealousy, n., 1760–2010
* 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.