zoophagous, adj.

zoophagous
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoophagous_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zoophagousadjective

## Earlier version

- zoophagous, a. in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zoophagous mean?

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

### How common is the adjective zoophagous?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1780 | 0.0008
1790 | 0.0006
1800 | 0.0022
1810 | 0.0033
1820 | 0.005
1830 | 0.0081
1840 | 0.009
1850 | 0.0091
1860 | 0.0093
1870 | 0.008
1880 | 0.0068
1890 | 0.0048
1900 | 0.0023
1910 | 0.0018
1920 | 0.0019
1930 | 0.0021
1940 | 0.0025
1950 | 0.003
1960 | 0.0035
1970 | 0.0034
1980 | 0.0035
1990 | 0.0039
2000 | 0.0041
2010 | 0.004

### How is the adjective zoophagous pronounced?

#### British English

/zuːˈɒfəɡəs/
zoo-OFF-uh-guhss
/zəʊˈɒfəɡəs/
zoh-OFF-uh-guhss

#### U.S. English

/zuˈɑfəɡəs/
zoo-AH-fuh-guhss
/zoʊˈɑfəɡəs/
zoh-AH-fuh-guhss

### Where does the adjective zoophagous come from?

Earliest known use

late 1700s

The earliest known use of the adjective zoophagous is in the late 1700s.

OED's earliest evidence for zoophagous is from 1788, in a translation by William Nicholson, chemist and inventor.

zoophagous is formed within English, by compounding; originally partly modelled on a French lexical item, and partly modelled on a Latin lexical item.

Etymons: zoo- comb. form, ‑phagous comb. form.

### Nearby entries

1. zoonosologist, n. 1860–
2. zoonosology, n. 1845–
3. zoonotic, adj. 1877–
4. zoon politikon, n. 1895–
5. zoonters, int. a1763–
6. zoo-organic, adj. 1821–90
7. zoopathologist, n. 1898–
8. zoopathology, n. 1841–
9. zoophagan, n. & adj. 1835–
10. zoophagic, adj. 1903–
11. zoophagous, adj.1788–
12. zoophagy, n. 1849–
13. zoophile, n. 1885–
14. zoophilia, n. 1894–
15. zoophilic, adj. 1884–
16. zoophilism, n. 1867–
17. zoophilist, n. 1829–
18. zoophilite, n. 1879–
19. zoophilous, adj. 1881–
20. zoophily, n. 1830–
21. zoophobia, n. 1888–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by compounding; originally partly modelled on a French lexical item, and partly modelled on a Latin lexical item.
Etymons: zoo- comb. form, ‑phagous comb. form.
< zoo- comb. form + ‑phagous comb. form,

after (a) French zoophage carnivorous (1786 in the passage translated in quot. 1788; 1700 as noun denoting a carnivore), designating a division of gastropod molluscs…
< zoo- comb. form + ‑phagous comb. form,

after (a) French zoophage carnivorous (1786 in the passage translated in quot. 1788; 1700 as noun denoting a carnivore), designating a division of gastropod molluscs (J. B. Lamarck Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertèbres vol. VII. (1822) 60; also 1822 as plural noun: see zoophagan n.),

and also after (b) scientific Latin Zoophaga, taxonomic name (see zoophagan n.).

Compare ancient Greek ζῳοϕάγος carnivorous.

## Meaning & use

1. 1788–
   Feeding on animals or animal matter; carnivorous; insectivorous; (formerly) spec. †belonging to either of two taxonomic groups called Zoophaga (see zoophagan n.) (obsolete).
   1. 1788

      > Zoophagous animals [French des animaux zoophages], whose humours are more attenuated than most quadrupeds;..must possess stronger and more numerous virtues.

      W. Nicholson, translation of A.-F. de Fourcroy, Elements of Natural History & Chemistry vol. IV. 418
   2. 1822

      > The divisions and subdivisions of the Trachelipoda, or third order of Mollusca, are necessarily more complex; but the subordinate titles are ranged under one of two sections, the first of which comprizes the Phytophagous, and the second the Zoophagous sorts.

      Monthly Review December 485
   3. 1835

      > Zoophagous animals, or those which attack and devour living animals.

      W. Kirby, On Power of God in Creation of Animals vol. II. xvi. 70
   4. 1841

      > The false molars are simply conical, but more compressed than in the Zoophagous Marsupials.

      Transactions Zool. Society vol. 2 321
   5. 1881

      > The countless host of animals that inhabit the depths of the ocean, all of which are necessarily zoophagous.

      Nature 3 February 324/1
   6. 1897

      > I shall have to invent a new classification for him, and call him a zoophagous (life-eating) maniac.

      B. Stoker, Dracula vi. 72
   7. 1954

      > He described differences between those larvae which fed on dung and those larvae which were zoophagous.

      Journal Animal Ecology vol. 23 234
   8. 1994

      > During the migration period.., transient birds are essentially zoophagous.

      Hydrobiologia vol. 279 153/1
   9. 2006

      > There were significantly more zoophagous bug species in wildflower areas than in pastures.

      Biodiversity & Conservation vol. 15 289
   animals taxonomy
   1. carnivorous 1646–
      Eating or feeding on flesh; applied to those animals which naturally prey on other animals, and spec. to the order Carnivora, n.
   2. zoophagous 1788–
      Feeding on animals or animal matter; carnivorous; insectivorous; (formerly) spec. †belonging to either of two taxonomic groups called Zoophaga (see…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zuːˈɒfəɡəs/
zoo-OFF-uh-guhss
/zəʊˈɒfəɡəs/
zoh-OFF-uh-guhss

### U.S. English

/zuˈɑfəɡəs/
zoo-AH-fuh-guhss
/zoʊˈɑfəɡəs/
zoh-AH-fuh-guhss

####

##### 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. 1700s–
   zoophagous
2. 1800s–1900s
   zoöphagous

## Frequency

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

zoophagous 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 zoophagous, adj., 1780–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1780 | 0.0008
1790 | 0.0006
1800 | 0.0022
1810 | 0.0033
1820 | 0.005
1830 | 0.0081
1840 | 0.009
1850 | 0.0091
1860 | 0.0093
1870 | 0.008
1880 | 0.0068
1890 | 0.0048
1900 | 0.0023
1910 | 0.0018
1920 | 0.0019
1930 | 0.0021
1940 | 0.0025
1950 | 0.003
1960 | 0.0035
1970 | 0.0034
1980 | 0.0035
1990 | 0.0039
2000 | 0.0041
2010 | 0.004

zoophagous, adj. was revised in June 2017.

zoophagous, adj. was last modified in July 2023.