zaptieh, n.

zaptieh
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zaptieh_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1921; not fully revised

# zaptiehnoun

## Earlier version

- zaptieh in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zaptieh mean?

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

#### Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

### How common is the noun zaptieh?

About 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1860 | 0.15
1870 | 0.14
1880 | 0.13
1890 | 0.12
1900 | 0.12
1910 | 0.081
1920 | 0.059
1930 | 0.039
1940 | 0.026
1950 | 0.0096
1960 | 0.007
1970 | 0.0079
1980 | 0.0094
1990 | 0.01
2000 | 0.0099
2010 | 0.011

### How is the noun zaptieh pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzaptɪeɪ/

### Where does the noun zaptieh come from?

Earliest known use

1860s

The earliest known use of the noun zaptieh is in the 1860s.

OED's earliest evidence for zaptieh is from 1869, in the writing of Henry Tozer, geographer and classical scholar.

zaptieh is a borrowing from Turkish.

Etymons: Turkish ḍabtiyeh.

### Nearby entries

1. Zapatismo, n. 1913–
2. Zapatist, n. & adj. 1911–
3. Zapatista, n. & adj. 1911–
4. zapote, n. 1842–
5. Zapotec, n. & adj. 1797–
6. zappe, v. c1600
7. zapped, adj. 1962–
8. zapper, n. 1969–
9. zapping, n. 1972–
10. zappy, adj. 1969–
11. zaptieh, n.1869–
12. ZAPU, n. 1961–
13. Zar, n. 1868–
14. Zarathustrian, adj. & n. 1859–
15. Zarathustrianism, n. 1864–
16. Zarathustric, adj. 1848–
17. Zarathustrism, n. 1871–
18. zaratite, n. 1858–
19. zarcole, n. 1585–
20. zarda, n. 1899–
21. zardozi, n. 1871–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Turkish.
Etymon: Turkish ḍabtiyeh.
< Turkish ḍabtiyeh, < Arabic ḍabt administration, regulation.

## Meaning & use

1. 1869–
   A Turkish policeman.
   1. 1869

      > A young Turkish Zaptié, or policeman.

      H. F. Tozer, Research Highlands of Turkey vol. II. 100
   2. 1878

      > A wretched coffee-house, which was full of zaptiehs, who were quartered here.

      translation of F. von Löher's Cyprus xxi. 177
   police
   1. quarterman 1573–1676
      In France, esp. Paris: a municipal officer responsible for policing a district of a city. Cf. quarter, n. III.13b. Obsolete. rare.
   2. lascarine 1598–1825
      An East Indian soldier; also, a member of the police force.
   3. peon 1609–1840
      In parts of South and Southeast Asia. A foot soldier or low-ranking police officer. Obsolete.
   4. sbirro 1670–
      An Italian police officer.
   5. exempt 1678–1840
      In the French army. A French police officer. Obsolete exc. Historical.
   6. kavass 1819–
      An armed constable or police officer, an armed servant or courier (in Turkey).
   7. ghaffir 1831–
      In Egypt: a policeman; a guardian, watchman.
   8. Texas Ranger 1846–
      A member of the state constabulary of Texas (formerly, of certain locally mustered regiments in the federal service during the Mexican War).
   9. carabiniere 1847–
      A member of an Italian Army Corps which serves as a police force.
   10. zaptieh 1869–
       A Turkish policeman.
   11. Zarp 1895–
       An appellation for a member of the Boer police force in the pre-1902 South African Republic; a Boer constable.
   12. flic 1899–
       A French policeman.
   13. kiap 1923–
       In New Guinea, a European patrol officer or police officer.
   14. Schupo 1923–
       In Germany, a police officer; also collective, the police force.
   15. guard 1925–
       Irish English. Usually with capital initial. A member of the Irish police force; a Garda (Garda, n. b). Often in plural, as the Guards: the police.
   16. provincial 1936–
       A member of a provincial police force in Canada. Now rare.
   17. Garda 1943–
       A member of the Garda Síochána; an Irish police officer. Used in plural for the police generally.
   18. Volkspolizist 1951–
       A member of the national police force of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany); an East German police officer. See Volkspolizei, n.
   19. Vopo 1954–
       (A member of) the Volkspolizei (see Volkspolizei, n.).
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzaptɪeɪ/

####

##### 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.

## Forms

### Variant forms

Also zaptié.

## Frequency

zaptieh typically occurs about 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zaptieh 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 zaptieh, n., 1860–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1860 | 0.15
1870 | 0.14
1880 | 0.13
1890 | 0.12
1900 | 0.12
1910 | 0.081
1920 | 0.059
1930 | 0.039
1940 | 0.026
1950 | 0.0096
1960 | 0.007
1970 | 0.0079
1980 | 0.0094
1990 | 0.01
2000 | 0.0099
2010 | 0.011

zaptieh, n. was first published in 1921; not fully revised.

zaptieh, n. was last modified in December 2024.