An optical instrument, consisting of a vertically suspended convex lens in front of a pivotally adjustable mirror mounted on a stand, designed for the viewing of prints in magnified form and with stereoscopic effect.
1753
Zograscopes for viewing perspective Prints.
in G. Adams, Descr. & Use Universal Trigonometrical Octant 3 (advertisement)
1953
The zograscope or optical diagonal machine.
Annual Sciencevol. IX. 315 (heading)
1953
No reference to the zograscope has so far been found in the literature of the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, save in certain..advertisements listing instruments made..by [George Adams].
Annual Sciencevol. IX. 315
1969
Usually described and sold as Georgian shaving mirrors; this, they are not; they are zograscopes,..probably invented about 1750... Also known, during its long life, as an optical machine..intended for viewing prints, etc., in a magnified form.
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.
zograscope typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.
zograscope 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 zograscope, n., 1950–2010
* 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
1950
0.0002
1960
0.0002
1970
0.0005
1980
0.0007
1990
0.0008
2000
0.0009
2010
0.0011
zograscope, n. was first published in 1986; not fully revised.
zograscope, n. was last modified in December 2024.