zoonosis, n.

zoonosis
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoonosis_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zoonosisnoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zoonosis mean?

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

### How common is the noun zoonosis?

About 0.1occurrences per million words in modern written English

1870 | 0.0006
1880 | 0.0006
1890 | 0.0005
1900 | 0.0003
1910 | 0.0004
1920 | 0.0006
1930 | 0.0079
1940 | 0.027
1950 | 0.046
1960 | 0.068
1970 | 0.085
1980 | 0.099
1990 | 0.1
2000 | 0.1
2010 | 0.1

### How is the noun zoonosis pronounced?

#### British English

/ˌzuː(ə)ˈnəʊsɪs/
zoo-uh-NOH-siss
/ˌzəʊəˈnəʊsɪs/
zoh-uh-NOH-siss

#### U.S. English

/zoʊəˈnoʊsəs/
zoh-uh-NOH-suhss
/zu(ə)ˈnoʊsəs/
zoo-uh-NOH-suhss

### Where does the noun zoonosis come from?

Earliest known use

1870s

The earliest known use of the noun zoonosis is in the 1870s.

OED's earliest evidence for zoonosis is from 1873, in American Journal of Medical Science.

zoonosis is a borrowing from French.

Etymons: French zoonose.

### Nearby entries

1. zoonerythrin, n. 1882–
2. zoonic, adj. 1798–1853
3. zooning, n. 1885–
4. Zoonist, adj. 1890–97
5. zoonite, n. 1838–
6. zoonitic, adj. 1860–91
7. zoonomic, adj. 1836–
8. zoonomical, adj. 1800–
9. zoonomist, n. 1800–99
10. zoonomy, n. 1800–
11. zoonosis, n.1873–
12. zoonosologist, n. 1860–
13. zoonosology, n. 1845–
14. zoonotic, adj. 1877–
15. zoon politikon, n. 1895–
16. zoonters, int. a1763–
17. zoo-organic, adj. 1821–90
18. zoopathologist, n. 1898–
19. zoopathology, n. 1841–
20. zoophagan, n. & adj. 1835–
21. zoophagic, adj. 1903–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from French.
Etymon: French zoonose.
< French zoonose (1855 or earlier) or its probable etymon German Zoonose (1855 or earlier in this sense; < Zoo- zoo- comb. form + ancient Greek νόσος disease: see noso- comb. form), with remodelling of the ending after ‑osis suffix.

## Meaning & use

1. 1873–
   A disease which can be transmitted naturally from animals to humans.
   1. 1873

      > The zoonoses are of course diseases derived from animals, and include glanders and hydrophobia.

      American Journal of Medical Science vol. 65 442
   2. 1876

      > The zoonoses [German Zoonosen],..in which there is a transference between individuals of different species, and for the most part from animals to man.

      J. Van Duyn & E. C. Seguin, translation of E. L. Wagner, Manual of General Pathology 132
   3. 1894

      > The post-mortem examination, and the bacteriological examination, showed that there was an infectious zoonosis.

      Journal Laryngol., Rhinol., & Otol. vol. 8 169
   4. 1905

      > As in the other zoonoses, the best prophylaxis in man consists in the prevention of the distribution of the disease among animals.

      J. C. Wilson, translation of A. Nicolaier, Infectious Dis. 894
   5. 1962

      > The Pan American Health Organization conducted a survey of the zoonoses in the Americas.

      Tropical Health (Nat. Acad. Sci. Publ. 996) 156/1
   6. 1999

      > Recognition of the source of a zoonosis can be difficult.

      Journal Epidemiol. & Community Health vol. 53 514/1
   7. 2013

      > The risk of toxoplasmosis and other cat-related zoonoses will be minimised by strict rules and regulations.

      Independent 4 January 23/2
   pathology veterinary medicine
   1. pantozootia 1848
      = panzootic, n.
   2. panzooty 1848–
      = panzootic, n.
   3. zoonosis 1873–
      A disease which can be transmitted naturally from animals to humans.
   4. panzootic 1890–
      A widespread outbreak of a disease affecting several kinds of animal. Cf. epizootic, n.
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. zoonosis 1873–
      A disease which can be transmitted naturally from animals to humans.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˌzuː(ə)ˈnəʊsɪs/
zoo-uh-NOH-siss
/ˌzəʊəˈnəʊsɪs/
zoh-uh-NOH-siss

### U.S. English

/zoʊəˈnoʊsəs/
zoh-uh-NOH-suhss
/zu(ə)ˈnoʊsəs/
zoo-uh-NOH-suhss
/zoʊˈɑnəsəs/
zoh-AH-nuh-suhss

###
Plural: zoonoses

### British English

/ˌzuː(ə)ˈnəʊsiːz/
zoo-uh-NOH-seez
/ˌzəʊəˈnəʊsiːz/
zoh-uh-NOH-seez

### U.S. English

/zuˈnoʊsiz/
zoo-NOH-seez
/zoʊˈnoʊsiz/
zoh-NOH-seez

####

##### 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: zoonoses ( British English /ˌzuː(ə)ˈnəʊsiːz/ (zoo-uh-NOH-seez) , /ˌzəʊəˈnəʊsiːz/ (zoh-uh-NOH-seez) , U.S. English /zuˈnoʊsiz/ (zoo-NOH-seez) , /zoʊˈnoʊsiz/ (zoh-NOH-seez) )

### Variant forms

1. 1800s–1900s
   zoönosis
2. 1800s–
   zoonosis

## Frequency

zoonosis typically occurs about 0.1 times per million words in modern written English.

zoonosis is in frequency band 4, which contains words occurring between 0.1 and 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 zoonosis, n., 1870–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1870 | 0.0006
1880 | 0.0006
1890 | 0.0005
1900 | 0.0003
1910 | 0.0004
1920 | 0.0006
1930 | 0.0079
1940 | 0.027
1950 | 0.046
1960 | 0.068
1970 | 0.085
1980 | 0.099
1990 | 0.1
2000 | 0.1
2010 | 0.1

### Frequency of zoonosis, n., 2017–2024

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Modern frequency series are derived from a corpus of 20 billion words, covering the period from 2017 to the present. The corpus is mainly compiled from online news sources, and covers all major varieties of World English.

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 corpus.

Period | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
2017 | 0.024
2018 | 0.061
2019 | 0.068
2020 | 0.083
2021 | 0.091
2022 | 0.099
2023 | 0.082
2024 | 0.077

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. zoonotic, adj. 1877–
   Of or relating to a disease which can be…

Originally published as part of the entry for zoo-, comb. form

zoonosis, n. was revised in June 2017.

zoonosis, n. was last modified in July 2023.