zeuglodont, n. & adj.

zeuglodont
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zeuglodont_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# zeuglodontnoun & adjective

## Factsheet

### What does the word zeuglodont mean?

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

zeuglodont has developed meanings and uses in subjects including

animals (1850s) palaeontology (1850s)

### How common is the word zeuglodont?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1850 | 0.0004
1860 | 0.0008
1870 | 0.0012
1880 | 0.0021
1890 | 0.0045
1900 | 0.0062
1910 | 0.0069
1920 | 0.007
1930 | 0.0067
1940 | 0.0066
1950 | 0.0057
1960 | 0.0034
1970 | 0.0017
1980 | 0.0009
1990 | 0.0008
2000 | 0.0009
2010 | 0.0007

### How is the word zeuglodont pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈz(j)uːɡlədɒnt/
ZYOO-gluh-dont

#### U.S. English

/ˈzuɡləˌdɑnt/
ZOO-gluh-dahnt

### Where does the word zeuglodont come from?

Earliest known use

1850s

The earliest known use of the word zeuglodont is in the 1850s.

OED's earliest evidence for zeuglodont is from 1850, in Proceedings Boston Soc. Natural History.

zeuglodont is a borrowing from Greek, combined with an English element; modelled on a Latin lexical item.

Etymons: Greek ζεύγλη, ‑odont comb. form.

### Nearby entries

1. zetetic, adj. & n. 1645–
2. zetetical, adj. & n. 1646–
3. zetetically, adv. 1665–
4. Zetetical Society, n. 1881–
5. zetetics, n. 1843–
6. Zetland, n. 1577–
7. Zetlander, n. 1614–
8. Zetlandic, adj. 1701–
9. zetta-, comb. form
10. Zeuglodon, n. 1839–
11. zeuglodont, n. & adj.1850–
12. zeuglodontoid, adj. & n. 1891
13. zeugma, n. c1450–
14. zeugmatic, adj. 1851–
15. zeugmatical, adj. 1610–
16. zeugmatically, adv. 1616–
17. zeugmatogram, n. 1973–
18. zeugmatographic, adj. 1973–
19. zeugmatography, n. 1973–
20. zeunerite, n. 1873–
21. Zeus, n.¹ 1587–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Greek, combined with an English element; modelled on a Latin lexical item.
Etymons: Greek ζεύγλη, ‑odont comb. form.
< ancient Greek ζεύγλη strap or loop of a yoke (see Zeuglodon n.) + ‑odont comb. form, after scientific Latin Zeuglodon Zeuglodon n.

Compare earlier Zeuglodon n.

## Meaning & use

Palaeontology.

1. noun
   1. 1850–
      An extinct cetacean of, or related to, the former genus Zeuglodon.
      See note at Basilosaurus n.
      1. 1850

         > Fossil bones of Seals found in the Miocene deposit..occur in company with the teeth of Sharks and Zeuglodonts.

         Proceedings Boston Soc. Natural History vol. 3 241
      2. 1960

         > The early whales or zeuglodonts..were carnivorous, and the sea-cows..fed on seaweed.

         R. Casanova, Fossil Collecting (1970) iv. 89
      3. 2001

         > The zeuglodont (yoke-toothed whale) is an early form of whale which lived mainly in the Eocene Epoch.

         P. Harrison, Sea Serpents & Lake Monsters British Isles Introduction 42
      animals palaeontology
      1. Basilosaurus 1834–
         A genus of extinct marine cetaceans of the family Basilosauridae, known from Mid to Late Eocene fossil remains in North America and North Africa…
      2. Zeuglodon 1839–
         A former name for a genus of extinct Eocene cetaceans, now again known by the original name of Basilosaurus; (also) an animal of this genus.
      3. zeuglodont 1850–
         An extinct cetacean of, or related to, the former genus Zeuglodon.
      4. Squalodon 1872–
         A genus of fossil cetaceans found in Miocene and early Pliocene formations; a cetacean belonging to this genus.
      5. squalodont 1889–
      6. zeuglodontoid 1891
         = zeuglodont, n.
      7. walking whale 1981–
         Any of various extinct animals thought to form an intermediate between terrestrial mammals and modern whales, with the ability to walk; (now) esp. Amb…
      View in Historical Thesaurus
2. adjective
   1. 1862–
      Of or relating to extinct cetaceans of the former genus Zeuglodon; designating such a cetacean.
      See note at Basilosaurus n.
      1. 1862

         > As the ichthyosaurus was replaced by the whale-like cetaceans, so the plesiosaurus may have been by the zeuglodont cetaceans.

         New American Cyclopaedia vol. XIV. 471/1
      2. 1885

         > Whales of the Zeuglodont family.

         R. Etheridge, Phillips's Manual Geology (new edition) vol. II. 650
      3. 1892

         > Zeuglodont and other cetacean remains from the tertiaries of the Caucasus.

         Athenæum 12 November 667/3
      4. 2009

         > To these jejune adventures were added..the trigeminal cranial nerve and its supposed relation to the cerebellum in the ancient Zeuglodont whales.

         P. V. Tobias in O. Harman & M. R. Dietrich, Rebels, Mavericks, & Heretics Biology v. 84
      animals palaeontology
      1. zeuglodont 1862–
         Of or relating to extinct cetaceans of the former genus Zeuglodon; designating such a cetacean.
      2. zeuglodontoid 1891
         = zeuglodont, adj.
      View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈz(j)uːɡlədɒnt/
ZYOO-gluh-dont

### U.S. English

/ˈzuɡləˌdɑnt/
ZOO-gluh-dahnt

####

##### 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

## Frequency

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

zeuglodont 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 zeuglodont, n. & adj., 1850–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1850 | 0.0004
1860 | 0.0008
1870 | 0.0012
1880 | 0.0021
1890 | 0.0045
1900 | 0.0062
1910 | 0.0069
1920 | 0.007
1930 | 0.0067
1940 | 0.0066
1950 | 0.0057
1960 | 0.0034
1970 | 0.0017
1980 | 0.0009
1990 | 0.0008
2000 | 0.0009
2010 | 0.0007

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. zeuglodontoid, adj. & n. 1891
   = zeuglodont, adj.

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

zeuglodont, n. & adj. was revised in June 2018.

zeuglodont, n. & adj. was last modified in June 2024.