zir, adj.

zir
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zir_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 2019

# ziradjective

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zir mean?

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

### How common is the adjective zir?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1990 | 0.0056
2000 | 0.0056
2010 | 0.0056

### How is the adjective zir pronounced?

#### British English

/zɪə/
zeer
/zə/
zuh

#### U.S. English

/zɪ(ə)r/
zeer
/zər/
zurr

### Where does the adjective zir come from?

Earliest known use

1990s

The earliest known use of the adjective zir is in the 1990s.

OED's earliest evidence for zir is from 1993, in Re: Women going for Guys/Money?.

It is also recorded as a pronoun from the 1990s.

zir is formed within English, by blending.

Etymons: ze pron., hir adj.

### Nearby entries

1. zipping, n. 1868–
2. Zippo, n.¹ 1944–
3. zippo, n.² 1973–
4. zippy, adj. 1889–
5. zip tie, n. 1969–
6. zip-tie, v. 1985–
7. zip top, n. 1926–
8. zip-up, adj. & n. 1927–
9. zip wire, n. 1971–
10. zir, pron. 1993–
11. zir, adj.1993–
12. ziraleet, n. 1794–
13. ziram, n. 1950–
14. zirbal, adj.?a1425–
15. zirbus, n. a1400–
16. zircaloy, n. 1953–
17. zircon, n. 1794–
18. zirconate, n. 1820–
19. zircon blue, n. & adj. 1928–
20. zircon earth, n. 1794–
21. zirconia, n. 1794–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by blending.
Blend of ze pron. and hir adj.

Compare zir pron.

## Meaning & use

1. 1993–
   Used as a gender-neutral possessive adjective (determiner), corresponding to the subjective pronoun ze (ze pron.). Cf. zir pron.
   Used as an alternative to his or her in contexts where a person's gender is undetermined, and also by or for individuals who do not identify themselves as either male or female, but rather as another or no gender, or as a combination of genders.
   1. 1993

      > I do want my partner to be doing something with zir life.

      Re: Women going for Guys/Money? in soc.singles 6 December (Usenet newsgroup, accessed 16 Aug. 2018)
   2. 2007

      > Zie put zir finger in zir mouth.

      C. Phair, Nightmare in Silicon xii. 73
   3. 2018

      > Seriously, what kind of nerd quotes zir own book. I'm just saying.

      @Kris_Ripper 18 July in twitter.com (accessed 16 Aug. 2018)

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zɪə/
zeer
/zə/
zuh

### U.S. English

/zɪ(ə)r/
zeer
/zər/
zurr

####

##### 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

### Variant forms

1. 1900s–
   xer, xir, xyr, zir

## Frequency

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

zir 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 zir, adj., 1990–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1990 | 0.0056
2000 | 0.0056
2010 | 0.0056

zir, adj. was first published in March 2019.

zir, adj. was last modified in December 2023.