zona ignea, n.

zona-ignea
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zona-ignea_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1921; not fully revised

# zona igneanoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zona ignea mean?

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

#### Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

### How common is the noun zona ignea?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1810 | 0.001
1820 | 0.0009
1830 | 0.0014
1840 | 0.0014
1850 | 0.001
1860 | 0.0008
1870 | 0.0007
1880 | 0.0007
1890 | 0.0006
1900 | 0.0002
1910 | 0.00001
1920 | 0
1930 | 0
1940 | 0.000003
1950 | 0.000003
1960 | 0.000005
1970 | 0.00001
1980 | 0.00002
1990 | 0.00002
2000 | 0.00002
2010 | 0.00003

### Where does the noun zona ignea come from?

Earliest known use

1810s

The earliest known use of the noun zona ignea is in the 1810s.

OED's only evidence for zona ignea is from around 1818–20, in the writing of E. Thompson.

### Nearby entries

1. zombie worm, n. 2005–
2. zombification, n. 1968–
3. zombified, adj. 1965–
4. zombify, v. 1950–
5. zombocalypse, n. 2007–
6. zomboid, adj. 1963–
7. zom-com, n. 2004–
8. zomotherapeutic, adj. 1900–
9. zomotherapy, n. 1900–
10. zona, n. 1706–
11. zona ignea, n.1818–
12. zonal, adj. 1867–
13. zonality, n. 1909–
14. zonally, adv. 1873–
15. zonal marking, n. 1958–
16. zona pellucida, n. 1841–
17. zona radiata, n. 1881–
18. zona reticularis, n. 1874–
19. zonarious, adj. 1656–
20. zonary, adj. 1881–
21. zonate, adj. 1866–

## Etymology

Latin, = fiery girdle.

## Meaning & use

Pathology.

1. 1818–
   Also simply zona, the disease herpes zoster or shingles.
   1. 1818–20

      > Herpes Zoster, Zona; or Zona ignea: the shingles.

      E. Thompson, Cullen's Nosologia (ed. 3) 331
   pathology
   1. shingles a1398–
      Originally: †inflammation or infection of the skin, esp. when accompanied by heat and redness; spec. erysipelas (obsolete). In later use: spec. a…
   2. zona 1706–
      Used in Anatomy with various qualifying adjectives to denote certain structures or parts of structures (see quots., and cf. zone, n. 6).
   3. zoster 1706–
      The disease shingles, herpes zoster. Also attributive.
   4. barngun 1746–
      An eruption of the skin; shingles.
   5. herpes zoster 1807–
      A disease of the skin (or sometimes of a mucous membrane) characterized by the appearance of patches of distinct vesicles. (Applied widely to a…
   6. zona ignea 1818–
      Also simply zona, the disease herpes zoster or shingles.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

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

zona ignea 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 zona ignea, n., 1810–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1810 | 0.001
1820 | 0.0009
1830 | 0.0014
1840 | 0.0014
1850 | 0.001
1860 | 0.0008
1870 | 0.0007
1880 | 0.0007
1890 | 0.0006
1900 | 0.0002
1910 | 0.00001
1920 | 0
1930 | 0
1940 | 0.000003
1950 | 0.000003
1960 | 0.000005
1970 | 0.00001
1980 | 0.00002
1990 | 0.00002
2000 | 0.00002
2010 | 0.00003

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

zona, n. was first published in 1921; not fully revised.