<classical LatinZēnōn-, Zēnō or its etymon ancient GreekΖήνων, the name of the ancient Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea + ‑iansuffix.Compare earlier Zenonicadj.1, and later Zenonismn.2
Meaning & use
adjective
1837–
Of or relating to the Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea (early 5th cent. b.c.) considered by Aristotle as the originator of dialectic (dialecticn.1 1a); of or relating to the philosophical ideas of Zeno of Elea, esp. his paradoxes.
1837
This part of the solution..is substantially what Aristotle means in his remark on the Zenonian paradox.
H. N. Coleridge in S. T. Coleridge, Friend (ed. 3) vol. III. iii. 93
1850
Generalising dialectics and Zenonian negation.
G. Grote, History of Greecevol. VIII.ii. lxviii. 565
1935
The regiment of Zenonian paradoxes relative to the impossibility of motion or temporal succession.
Times Literary Supplement 4 July 426/2
2002
Who would dare say that the paradox he comes to embrace by the end of his story..does not invite skeptical, Zenonian interrogation?
A follower or student of Zeno of Elea; a person who holds similar views to those of Zeno of Elea (cf. sense A).
1952
The reasoning on which it is based will not depend upon the particular lengths which Zenonians wish us to ‘compound’.
Philosophy of Sciencevol. 19 301
1979
That atomistic answer has left most Zenonians unmoved.
J. Barnes, Presocratic Philosophersvol. I. xii. 245
2014
Modern-day Zenonians do not deny the existence of nondegenerate segments.
Philos. Sciencevol. 81 673
Pronunciation
British English
/zᵻˈnəʊniən/
zuh-NOH-nee-uhn
U.S. English
/zəˈnoʊniən/
zuh-NOH-nee-uhn
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.
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
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
Frequency
Zenonian typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.
Zenonian 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 Zenonian, adj.³ & n.², 1830–2010
* 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
1830
0.0004
1840
0.0005
1850
0.0005
1860
0.0005
1870
0.0006
1880
0.0006
1890
0.0006
1900
0.0007
1910
0.0006
1920
0.0009
1930
0.001
1940
0.0011
1950
0.0013
1960
0.0014
1970
0.0015
1980
0.0016
1990
0.0015
2000
0.0015
2010
0.0015
Originally published as part of the entry for Zenonian, adj.¹ & n.¹
Zenonian, adj.³ & n.² was revised in June 2018.
Zenonian, adj.³ & n.² was last modified in July 2023.