zygal, adj.

zygal
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zygal_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1921; not fully revised

# zygaladjective

## Earlier version

- zygal, a. in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zygal mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the adjective zygal. 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 adjective zygal?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1900 | 0.0011
1910 | 0.0008
1920 | 0.0016
1930 | 0.002
1940 | 0.0016
1950 | 0.0016
1960 | 0.0017
1970 | 0.0017
1980 | 0.0017
1990 | 0.0012
2000 | 0.0004
2010 | 0.0003

### How is the adjective zygal pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzʌɪɡəl/

### Where does the adjective zygal come from?

Earliest known use

1880s

The earliest known use of the adjective zygal is in the 1880s.

OED's only evidence for zygal is from 1886, in a paper by Burt Green Wilder.

zygal is formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: zygon n., ‑al suffix1.

### Nearby entries

1. Zwinglianism, n. 1581–
2. Zwinglianist, n. 1673–1759
3. zwischenzug, n. 1941–
4. zwitterion, n. 1906–
5. zwitterionic, adj. 1946–
6. Zydeco, n. 1949–
7. zygadite, n. 1861–
8. zygaena, n. 1717–
9. zygaenid, n. & adj. 1913–
10. zygaenidan, n. 1837–
11. zygal, adj.1886–
12. zygantrum, n. 1854–
13. zygapophysial, adj. 1870–
14. zygapophysis, n. 1854–
15. zygite, n. 1888–
16. zygnemaceous, adj.
17. zygnemid, n. 1887–
18. zygnomic, adj. 1926–
19. zygo-, comb. form
20. zygobranchiate, adj. 1883–
21. zygocactus, n. 1950–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by derivation.
< zygon n. + ‑al suffix1.

## Meaning & use

Anatomy.

1. 1886–
   Pertaining to or having a zygon.
   1. 1886

      > The complete or typical condition of a zygal fissure is like two y's joined by their stems,..or, viewed from the side, like an expanded H.

      B. G. Wilder in Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease vol. 13 304
   anatomy neurology
   1. zygal 1886–
      Pertaining to or having a zygon.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzʌɪɡəl/

####

##### 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.

## Frequency

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

zygal 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 zygal, adj., 1900–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1900 | 0.0011
1910 | 0.0008
1920 | 0.0016
1930 | 0.002
1940 | 0.0016
1950 | 0.0016
1960 | 0.0017
1970 | 0.0017
1980 | 0.0017
1990 | 0.0012
2000 | 0.0004
2010 | 0.0003

zygal, adj. was first published in 1921; not fully revised.

zygal, adj. was last modified in December 2024.