zit-faced, adj.

zit-faced
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zit-faced_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# zit-facedadjective

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zit-faced mean?

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

zit-faced is considered derogatory.

### How common is the adjective zit-faced?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1970 | 0.0006
1980 | 0.0008
1990 | 0.0008
2000 | 0.0008
2010 | 0.001

### Where does the adjective zit-faced come from?

Earliest known use

1970s

The earliest known use of the adjective zit-faced is in the 1970s.

OED's earliest evidence for zit-faced is from 1971, in Peak.

### Nearby entries

1. zircon-like, adj. 1857–
2. zircono-, comb. form
3. zirconolite, n. 1957–
4. zircon-syenite, n. 1813–
5. zirconyl, n. 1887–
6. zirkelite, n. 1895–
7. zit, n. 1912–
8. zit cream, n. 1968–
9. zitella, n. a1660–
10. zit-face, n. 1974–
11. zit-faced, adj.1971–
12. zither, n. 1831–
13. zither, v. 1889–
14. zither banjo, n. 1888–
15. zithering, adj. 1889–
16. zitherist, n. 1866–
17. zither-like, adj. 1881–
18. ziti, n. 1845–
19. zitty, adj. 1971–
20. Ziv, n. a1382–
21. zizania, n. 1526–

## Meaning & use

derogatory. slang (originally U.S.).

1. 1971–
   (Of a person) having pimples or facial acne (frequently with connotations of youth or callowness).
   1. 1971

      > Down on: People being zit faced.

      Peak (Medfield (Massachusetts) High School Yearbook) 38
   2. 1978

      > How old is the little zit-faced, coke-snorting, hash-smoking son of a bitch?

      J. Wambaugh, Black Marble vi. 77
   3. 2016

      > The rumor circulated by horny zit-faced boys suddenly deprived of their fantasy object was that she'd gotten knocked up.

      J. Zafra, Stories so Far 60
   pathology U.S. English colloquial and slang derogatory
   1. plouky c1440–
      Covered with pimples, spotty.
   2. blobbed 1486–
      Affected with pimples or swellings.
   3. pimpled 1506–
      Having or covered with pimples, pimply; characterized by pimples.
   4. plouked c1540–
      = plouky, adj.
   5. precious 1581
      Probably: carbuncled, pimpled. See also precious-nosed, adj. Obsolete. rare.
   6. whealy 1611
      Pimply.
   7. spotty 1620–
      Having, or characterized by, blemishes, pustules, or pimples on the skin; (in later use) esp. having pimples or acne (frequently with connotations…
   8. pimpling 1628–
      That is erupting in pimples, pimply; that causes pimples or goose pimples.
   9. plouky-faced?1645–
   10. ampery 1736–
       Decaying, rotten; weak; unhealthy or unhealthy-looking; infected; (also) pimply.
   11. pimply 1747–
       Covered with pimples; resembling or suggestive of pimples.
   12. poxy a1758–
       Infected with pox; spotty. Now in weakened colloquial use (chiefly British): of poor quality, useless, worthless (frequently as a general term of…
   13. papulous 1800–
       Medicine. = papular, adj.
   14. papular 1813–
       Consisting of papules; of the nature of or bearing papules.
   15. papulated 1822–
       Bearing or consisting of papules; papular.
   16. whelky 1822–
       Pimply.
   17. pimplous 1906–
       Characterized by pimples; pimply.
   18. zit-faced 1971–
       derogatory. slang (originally U.S.). (Of a person) having pimples or facial acne (frequently with connotations of youth or callowness).
   19. zitty 1971–
       Having or characterized by pimples or facial acne (frequently with connotations of youth or callowness).
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

zit-faced typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zit-faced 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 zit-faced, adj., 1970–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1970 | 0.0006
1980 | 0.0008
1990 | 0.0008
2000 | 0.0008
2010 | 0.001

Originally published as part of the entry for zit, n.

zit, n. was revised in March 2021.