zemirah, n.

zemirah
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zemirah_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# zemirahnoun

## Earlier version

- zemirah in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zemirah mean?

There are two meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun zemirah. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

### How common is the noun zemirah?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1930 | 0.0013
1940 | 0.0022
1950 | 0.0028
1960 | 0.0031
1970 | 0.0035
1980 | 0.004
1990 | 0.0044
2000 | 0.0049
2010 | 0.0046

### How is the noun zemirah pronounced?

#### British English

/zəˈmɪərə/
zuh-MEER-uh

#### U.S. English

/zəˈmɪrə/
zuh-MEER-uh

### Where does the noun zemirah come from?

Earliest known use

mid 1700s

The earliest known use of the noun zemirah is in the mid 1700s.

OED's earliest evidence for zemirah is from 1767, in Annual Register 1766.

zemirah is a borrowing from Hebrew.

Etymons: Hebrew zĕmirāh.

### Nearby entries

1. Zelig-like, adj. 1983–
2. zelkova, n. 1836–
3. zelotypia, n. 1566–
4. zelotyping, adj. a1660
5. zelotypist, n.?1632
6. zelotypy, n. 1623–1794
7. Zemblan, n. & adj. 1674–1805
8. Zemblian, n. & adj. 1674–1796
9. zemi, n. 1555–
10. zemiistic, adj. 1907–
11. zemirah, n.1767–
12. zemni, n. 1775–
13. Zemsky Sobor, n. 1877–
14. zemstvo, n. 1865–
15. zemstvoist, n. 1904–
16. Zen, n. & adj. 1727–
17. Zen, v. 1968–
18. zenana, n. & adj. 1761–
19. zenana cloth, n. 1885–
20. Zen Buddhist, adj. & n. 1917–
21. Zend, n. & adj. 1700–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Hebrew.
Etymon: Hebrew zĕmirāh.
< post-biblical Hebrew zĕmirāh (originally and chiefly in plural zĕmirō̄ṯ: a200 a.d.; c600 in the singular) < biblical Hebrew zimmer to make music in praise of God…
< post-biblical Hebrew zĕmirāh (originally and chiefly in plural zĕmirō̄ṯ: a200 a.d.; c600 in the singular) < biblical Hebrew zimmer to make music in praise of God.

### Notes

Compare biblical Hebrew zamir melody or song in praise of God (< the same verb), Syriac zemirā song, psalm.
In plural form zemirot after the Hebrew plural form zĕmirō̄ṯ.
Compare the following earlier occurrence of the transliterated Hebrew word in an English context:

1. 1718

   > In the Seder Tephilloth..they are inserted among the Hymns (Zemiroth).

   W. Wotton, Misc. Discourse Scribes & Pharisees vol. I. iii. 25

## Meaning & use

Judaism.

1. 1767–
   Usually in plural (in form zemirot). A religious song or hymn typically in Hebrew or Aramaic; spec. (a) (in the Ashkenazi tradition) a song of praise or celebration sung during or after the Sabbath meal; (b) (in the Sephardi tradition) any of various psalms recited daily at the beginning of the morning service.
   1. 1767

      > The Jews are said to have..their Zemiroth, verses of songs of thanksgiving, unto this day.

      Annual Register 1766 Antiquities 148/2
   2. 1831

      > If these three Misvot as well as the Misva of saying the Zemirot, shall have been given..it shall not be given to any other.

      Ascamot, or Laws & Regulations Jewish Congregation vii. 52
   3. 1892

      > When supper was over grace was chanted, and then the Zemiroth were sung—songs summing up, in light and jingling metre, the very essence of holy joyousness.

      I. Zangwill, Children of Ghetto vol. II. 82
   4. 1949

      > A survey of the morning service for week days..indicates that these particular rites contain two groups of Pesuke de-Zimra or Zemirot.

      Proceedings Amer. Acad. Jewish Research vol. 18 255
   5. 1955

      > The Sabbath hymns, or z'miroth, lyrical exaltations of thankfulness to God for his wonders and kindness to the children of Israel.

      Notes vol. 12 634/2
   6. 1969

      > A man might drop in at any time of the day..to pray..talk of this and that, and, on a festive occasion, sing a zemirah (religious song).

      C. Bermant, Troubled Eden xvi. 213
   7. 1993

      > An exception is made in the case of the two Aramaic prayers..and the Aramaic Zemirah (Sabbath table hymn), Yah Ribon, which are endowed with an accompanying translation.

      J. M. Cohen, Blessed are You (1997) vi. 81
   8. 2002

      > A sabbath evening in Jerusalem..when shabbat zmirot segued effortlessly into Broadway show tunes.

      Jewish History vol. 16 220
   Christianity Judaism
   1. zemirah 1767–
      Usually in plural (in form zemirot). A religious song or hymn typically in Hebrew or Aramaic; spec. (a) (in the Ashkenazi tradition) a song of praise…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zəˈmɪərə/
zuh-MEER-uh

### U.S. English

/zəˈmɪrə/
zuh-MEER-uh

###
Plural: zemirot

####

##### 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

### Inflections

Plural: zemirot ( /zəˈmiːərəʊt/ /səˈmiːərəʊt/ )

### Variant forms

1. 1700s–
   zemirah
2. 1900s–
   zemira, zmirah, z'mirah

## Frequency

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

zemirah 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 zemirah, n., 1930–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1930 | 0.0013
1940 | 0.0022
1950 | 0.0028
1960 | 0.0031
1970 | 0.0035
1980 | 0.004
1990 | 0.0044
2000 | 0.0049
2010 | 0.0046

zemirah, n. was revised in June 2018.

zemirah, n. was last modified in December 2024.