Zapatista, n. & adj.

zapatista
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zapatista_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 2004

# Zapatistanoun & adjective

## Factsheet

### What does the word Zapatista mean?

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

### How common is the word Zapatista?

About 0.5occurrences per million words in modern written English

1910 | 0.094
1920 | 0.085
1930 | 0.079
1940 | 0.12
1950 | 0.15
1960 | 0.13
1970 | 0.2
1980 | 0.36
1990 | 0.47
2000 | 0.55
2010 | 0.7

### How is the word Zapatista pronounced?

#### British English

/ˌzapəˈtiːstə/
zap-uh-TEE-stuh

#### U.S. English

/ˌzæpəˈtistə/
zap-uh-TEE-stuh
/ˌsɑpəˈtistə/
sah-puh-TEE-stuh

### Where does the word Zapatista come from?

Earliest known use

1910s

The earliest known use of the word Zapatista is in the 1910s.

OED's earliest evidence for Zapatista is from 1911, in Thomas County (Nebraska) Herald.

Zapatista is a borrowing from Spanish.

Etymons: Spanish Zapatista.

### Nearby entries

1. zanyship, n. 1766–1839
2. Zanzibari, n. & adj. 1882–
3. zap, n. 1968–
4. zap, v. 1942–
5. zap, int. 1929–
6. Zapata, n. 1962–
7. zapateado, n. 1845–
8. Zapatism, n. 1911–
9. Zapatismo, n. 1913–
10. Zapatist, n. & adj. 1911–
11. Zapatista, n. & adj.1911–
12. zapote, n. 1842–
13. Zapotec, n. & adj. 1797–
14. zappe, v. c1600
15. zapped, adj. 1962–
16. zapper, n. 1969–
17. zapping, n. 1972–
18. zappy, adj. 1969–
19. zaptieh, n. 1869–
20. ZAPU, n. 1961–
21. Zar, n. 1868–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Spanish.
Etymon: Spanish Zapatista.
< Spanish Zapatista (1926–8 or earlier) < the name of Emiliano Zapata (1879–1919), Mexican revolutionary + ‑ista ‑ist suffix.

Compare Zapatist n.

## Meaning & use

1. noun
   1. 1.
      1911–
      A supporter of Emiliano Zapata (see etymology); a member of the revolutionary guerrilla movement which was founded c1910 by Zapata and which fought during the Mexican Revolution to achieve the redistribution of agricultural land. Cf. Zapatist n. A.1. Now historical.
      1. 1911

         > Thirteen out of a party of twenty rurales were killed in a fight with Zapatistas near San Maria, Mex., Sunday.

         Thomas County (Nebraska) Herald 5 January
      2. 1981

         > Pancho Villa had gained significant advantages: he had acquired an aura of legitimacy, and he had made an important alliance with the Zapatistas.

         L. B. Hall, Álvaro Obregón vii. 95
      3. 2014

         > Zapata lost patience with Madero, and in November 1911 the Zapatistas proclaimed their radical program the Plan de Ayala.

         Mexico (Insight Guides) (ed. 9) 63/2
      historical
   2. 2.
      1994–
      A member or supporter of a revolutionary force espousing ideals for social and agrarian reform similar to those of Zapata, which launched a popular uprising in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas in January 1994. Cf. Zapatist n. A.2.
      1. 1994

         > The Zapatistas announced in June that their supporters had overwhelmingly rejected the peace proposal.

         Associated Press Worldstream (Nexis) 1 January
      2. 2001

         > The Zapatistas understood the link between international trade and their own security.

         J. A. Tickner, Gendering World Politics v. 138
      3. 2022

         > As I was finishing the first draft of this book in August of 2019, a new letter arrived..addressed, as the Zapatistas' letters always are, to anyone open to receiving it.

         J. Sarbanes, Letters on Autonomy Project 170
2. adjective
   1. 1912–
      Of, relating to, or designating the Zapatistas (in either sense). Cf. Zapatist adj.
      1. 1912

         > Bands which appear to be not closely connected with the Zapatista movement.

         Washington Post 19 February 1/3
      2. 1950

         > He..placed a Zapatista general in charge of troops in Morelos.

         F. Tannenbaum, Mexico iv. 64
      3. 1994

         > In a statement faxed to the news media, the Zapatista Army..said thousands of armed men and women seized San Cristobal de las Casas.

         Coloradoan (Fort Collins) 2 January a8/2
      4. 2016

         > Many catechists and deacons trained under Ruiz reportedly joined the 1994 Zapatista rebellion.

         Monitor (McAllen, Texas) 16 February a5/6
      1. Fructidorian 1884–
         Belonging to the party that came into power in Fructidor.
      2. Octobrist 1906–
         Of, relating to, or designating the Octobrists. Also (rare): communist, revolutionary, inspired by the Russian October Revolution of 1917 (cf. Oct…
      3. Zapatist 1911–
         Of, relating to, or designating the Zapatists (in either sense). Cf. Zapatista, adj.
      4. Zapatista 1912–
         Of, relating to, or designating the Zapatistas (in either sense). Cf. Zapatist, adj.
      View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˌzapəˈtiːstə/
zap-uh-TEE-stuh

### U.S. English

/ˌzæpəˈtistə/
zap-uh-TEE-stuh
/ˌsɑpəˈtistə/
sah-puh-TEE-stuh

####

##### 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

### Variant forms

Also with lower-case initial.

## Frequency

Zapatista typically occurs about 0.5 times per million words in modern written English.

Zapatista 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 Zapatista, n. & adj., 1910–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1910 | 0.094
1920 | 0.085
1930 | 0.079
1940 | 0.12
1950 | 0.15
1960 | 0.13
1970 | 0.2
1980 | 0.36
1990 | 0.47
2000 | 0.55
2010 | 0.7

Zapatista, n. & adj. was first published in September 2004.