In sense 1 after Frenchzoophilie (1855 or earlier in this sense); compare earlier zoophilyn. 1.
In sense 2 after scientific Latinzoophilia (R. von Krafft-Ebing Psychopathia sexualis (ed. 10, 1898) 181; >GermanZoophilie (1900 or earlier in this sense)); compare:
1899
In close relation to stuff-fetichism, certain cases must be considered in which beasts exercise an aphrodisical influence over human beings. One feels tempted to call it Zoophilia Erotica. This perversion seems to be rooted in a fetichism the object of which is the skin of the beast.
F. J. Rebman, translation of R. von Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis iii. 267
Meaning & use
Originally Psychology and Psychiatry.
1.
1894–
Emotional attachment to, or love of, animals; opposition to cruelty to animals; (in early use) esp. concern for the welfare of animals which is considered abnormal or obsessive.
1894
The obsession reveals itself here either by a dread of certain animals (zoophobia), or by the impossibility of seeing them suffer in any way (zoophilia [French zoophilie], antivivisectionists of Magnan).
H. M. Bannister, translation of E. Régis, Pract. Manual Mental Medicine viii. 274
1904
The imaginary ‘vivisector’ whom the victims of the obsession of zoophilia are so fond of holding up to popular hatred.
British Medical Journal 27 August 474/1
1972
The concern is frequently so extreme and so distorted that the end result is kind of misanthropic zoophilia.
Proceedings of American Philosophical Societyvol. 116 159/2
2000
Hitler's zoophilia, and Nazi environmentalism more generally, were connected with a hostility to ‘cosmopolitan’ intellect.
Sexual desire aroused by or directed towards animals; (in later use also) sexual activity with animals.
1906
There is..the more or less sexual pleasure sometimes experienced..in the sight of copulating animals. This I would propose to call Mixoscopic Zoophilia; it falls within the range of normal variations.
H. Ellis, Studies in Psychology of Sexvol. V. 71
1908
We will first describe zoophilia, a sexual inclination towards animals without actual sexual intercourse.
E. Paul, translation of I. Bloch, Sexual Life of our Time xxiii. 641
1940
Zoöphilia..is a term coined by Krafft-Ebing to denote sexual excitement caused by the stroking and fondling of animals. It does not refer to sexual intercourse with animals.
L. E. Hinsie & J. Shatzky, Psychiatric Dictionary 558/2
1966
The extent to which zoophilia involving monkeys was actually practised is difficult to assess.
R. Morris & D. Morris, Men & Apes iii. 65
1978
One of your contemporaries referred in its review to the ‘zoophilia’ in this film. A simpler word is animalism or bestiality.
Daily Telegraph 2 December 16
2007
I am not for a moment attempting to equate homosexuality with zoophilia.
Originally: the act of anal intercourse between two men or between a man and a woman, or of sexual intercourse between a person and an animal… When used to refer to lawful anal intercourse now generally considered offensive but also somewhat archaic; sometimes employed ironically (as e.g. in quot. 2003).
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.
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.
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
zoophilia typically occurs about 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.
zoophilia 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 zoophilia, n., 1890–2010
* 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
1890
0.0034
1900
0.005
1910
0.006
1920
0.0065
1930
0.0074
1940
0.0082
1950
0.01
1960
0.011
1970
0.011
1980
0.012
1990
0.012
2000
0.013
2010
0.014
zoophilia, n. was revised in June 2017.
zoophilia, n. was last modified in September 2024.