zoophytal, adj.

zoophytal
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoophytal_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zoophytaladjective

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zoophytal mean?

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

### How common is the adjective zoophytal?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1810 | 0.0031
1820 | 0.0028
1830 | 0.0023
1840 | 0.0021
1850 | 0.0021
1860 | 0.0016
1870 | 0.0008
1880 | 0.0003
1890 | 0.0001
1900 | 0.0001
1910 | 0.00001
1920 | 0
1930 | 0
1940 | 0
1950 | 0.000005
1960 | 0.000005
1970 | 0.000005
1980 | 0.000005
1990 | 0.000006
2000 | 0.000007
2010 | 0.000009

### Where does the adjective zoophytal come from?

Earliest known use

mid 1700s

The earliest known use of the adjective zoophytal is in the mid 1700s.

OED's earliest evidence for zoophytal is from 1756, in the writing of Thomas Birch, compiler of histories and biographer.

### Nearby entries

1. zoophilic, adj. 1884–
2. zoophilism, n. 1867–
3. zoophilist, n. 1829–
4. zoophilite, n. 1879–
5. zoophilous, adj. 1881–
6. zoophily, n. 1830–
7. zoophobia, n. 1888–
8. zoophysical, adj. 1820–
9. zoophysics, n. 1887–
10. zoophysiology, n. 1803–
11. zoophytal, adj.1756–
12. zoophyte, n. 1606–
13. zoophytic, adj. 1808–
14. zoophytical, adj. 1779–
15. zoophytish, adj. 1854–80
16. zoophytist, n. 1814–62
17. zoophytography, n. 1735–1905
18. zoophytoid, adj. 1854–83
19. zoophytological, adj. 1823–
20. zoophytologist, n. 1835–
21. zoophytology, n. 1815–

## Meaning & use

Biology. Now historical.

1. 1756–
   Of or relating to a zoophyte or zoophytes; (also) produced by zoophytes.
   Stressed as zooˈphytal.
   1. 1756

      > The account of zoophytal or animal ingraftings, received by Mr. Evelyn from a friend of his, was communicated by him.

      T. Birch, History of Royal Society vol. I. 110
   2. 1856

      > In animals, (such as many zoophytal organisms,) the sexes sometimes seem to be absent, and almost certainly do not pertain to two separate individuals.

      L. H. Grindon, Life 299
   3. 1888

      > The horny Zoophytal growths.

      Journal Conchol. vol. 5 178
   4. 1985

      > Discussions..about the possibility of a true ‘zoophytal’ creature had involved..a search for defining criteria of plants and animals.

      P. R. Sloan in D. Kohn, Darwinian Heritage iii. 98
   invertebrates historical
   1. plant-living 1594
      That has characteristics of both an animal and a plant; = zoophytic, adj.
   2. zoophytal 1756–
      Of or relating to a zoophyte or zoophytes; (also) produced by zoophytes.
   3. zoophytical 1779–
      Characteristic of or resembling a zoophyte; relating to zoophytes.
   4. zoophytic 1808–
      Of or relating to a zoophyte or zoophytes. Also: produced by zoophytes.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

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

zoophytal 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 zoophytal, adj., 1810–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1810 | 0.0031
1820 | 0.0028
1830 | 0.0023
1840 | 0.0021
1850 | 0.0021
1860 | 0.0016
1870 | 0.0008
1880 | 0.0003
1890 | 0.0001
1900 | 0.0001
1910 | 0.00001
1920 | 0
1930 | 0
1940 | 0
1950 | 0.000005
1960 | 0.000005
1970 | 0.000005
1980 | 0.000005
1990 | 0.000006
2000 | 0.000007
2010 | 0.000009

Originally published as part of the entry for zoophyte, n.

zoophyte, n. was revised in June 2017.