zebu, n.

zebu
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zebu_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# zebunoun

## Earlier version

- zebu in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zebu mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun zebu. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

### How common is the noun zebu?

About 0.07occurrences per million words in modern written English

1770 | 0.06
1780 | 0.05
1790 | 0.048
1800 | 0.044
1810 | 0.043
1820 | 0.037
1830 | 0.025
1840 | 0.024
1850 | 0.027
1860 | 0.026
1870 | 0.028
1880 | 0.034
1890 | 0.039
1900 | 0.046
1910 | 0.051
1920 | 0.06
1930 | 0.069
1940 | 0.077
1950 | 0.077
1960 | 0.077
1970 | 0.074
1980 | 0.072
1990 | 0.069
2000 | 0.063
2010 | 0.056

### How is the noun zebu pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈziːb(j)uː/
ZEE-byoo

#### U.S. English

/ˈziˌb(j)u/
ZEE-byoo

### Where does the noun zebu come from?

Earliest known use

late 1700s

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

OED's earliest evidence for zebu is from 1771, in the writing of Thomas Pennant, naturalist, traveller, and writer.

zebu is a borrowing from French.

Etymons: French zébu.

### Nearby entries

1. zebra spider, n. 1806–
2. zebra suit, n. 1853–
3. zebra swallowtail, n. 1855–
4. zebra wolf, n. 1808–
5. zebrawood, n. 1768–
6. zebra woodpecker, n. 1884–
7. zebrina, n. 1846–
8. zebrine, adj. a1810–
9. zebroid, adj. & n. 1881–
10. zebrule, n. 1899–
11. zebu, n.1771–
12. zecchino, n. 1572–
13. Zechstein, n. 1798–
14. zed, n. c1175–
15. zedbed, n. 1954–
16. zedoary, n. Old English–
17. zedonk, n. 1961–
18. zee, n. 1580–
19. Zeelander, n. c1400–
20. Zeelandic, adj. 1802–
21. Zeelandish, adj. 1593–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from French.
Etymon: French zébu.
< French zébu (Buffon Hist. nat. (1754) vol. XI. 288), of unknown origin…
< French zébu (Buffon Hist. nat. (1754) vol. XI. 288), of unknown origin.

### Notes

Buffon reports that he saw a zebu at an exhibition in 1752, where it was presented as an African animal under that name. He associates it with an animal encountered by P. Belon in Egypt in the 16th cent. (compare quot. 1771), which Belon had described as a ‘small horned ox’ without giving it a distinct name.
A Tibetan origin is sometimes suggested for the French word, but this cannot be substantiated.

## Meaning & use

1. 1771–
   A type of domestic cattle characterized by a shoulder hump and a large dewlap, domesticated in South Asia, reaching North Africa at an early date, and now widely bred in tropical countries; an animal of this type.
   Now usually regarded as constituting the subspecies Bos taurus indicus, and comprising many breeds, including the Brahman.
   1. 1771

      > M. de Buffon imagines his Zebu..to be Belon's.

      T. Pennant, Synopsis of Quadrupeds 9
   2. 1785

      > He gives us the measurements of a Zebu..as taken by himself.

      T. Jefferson, Notes Virginia vi. 97
   3. 1847

      > The zebu race is not confined to India, China, and the Indian islands, but is found on the eastern coast of Africa, and in..Madagascar.

      W. C. L. Martin, Ox 19/1
   4. 1870

      > The cattle of the island belong to the same species as the zebu or Indian ox.

      Proceedings of Royal Geographical Society vol. 14 362
   5. 1903

      > He bred a female hybrid from a zebu bull and a gayal cow.

      Times 9 January 5/2
   6. 1942

      > The zebu withstands both rainy and dry seasons well.

      National Geographic Magazine June 805 (caption)
   7. 2015

      > Zebu tend to be farmed in the tropics, thanks to adaptations that allow them to survive better.

      B. Shapiro, How to clone Mammoth v. 101
   agriculture animals
   1. zebu 1771–
      A type of domestic cattle characterized by a shoulder hump and a large dewlap, domesticated in South Asia, reaching North Africa at an early date…
   2. Brahminy 1803–
      Designating the zebu or Brahman ox. Cf. Brahmin, n. compounds C.2.
   3. Brahmin 1829–
      As a modifier (now usually in the form Brahman), designating a type or subspecies of ox with a shoulder hump and a large dewlap, Bos taurus indicus…
   4. Brahmin 1859–
      Now usually in form Brahman. A bovine animal of the Brahman breed (see compounds C.2), or of the zebu type from which it is derived.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈziːb(j)uː/
ZEE-byoo

### U.S. English

/ˈziˌb(j)u/
ZEE-byoo

####

##### 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

### Inflections

Plural: unchanged

## Frequency

zebu typically occurs about 0.07 times per million words in modern written English.

zebu 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 zebu, n., 1770–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1770 | 0.06
1780 | 0.05
1790 | 0.048
1800 | 0.044
1810 | 0.043
1820 | 0.037
1830 | 0.025
1840 | 0.024
1850 | 0.027
1860 | 0.026
1870 | 0.028
1880 | 0.034
1890 | 0.039
1900 | 0.046
1910 | 0.051
1920 | 0.06
1930 | 0.069
1940 | 0.077
1950 | 0.077
1960 | 0.077
1970 | 0.074
1980 | 0.072
1990 | 0.069
2000 | 0.063
2010 | 0.056

### Frequency of zebu, 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 | 0.009
2018 | 0.0084
2019 | 0.0084
2020 | 0.0097
2021 | 0.0094
2022 | 0.0071
2023 | 0.0073
2024 | 0.0068

zebu, n. was revised in June 2018.

zebu, n. was last modified in September 2024.