zinc-air, adj.

zinc-air
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zinc-air_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1986; not fully revised

# zinc-airadjective

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zinc-air mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the adjective zinc-air. 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 zinc-air?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

2017 | 0.01
2018 | 0.009
2019 | 0.01
2020 | 0.015
2021 | 0.014
2022 | 0.014
2023 | 0.016
2024 | 0.016

### Where does the adjective zinc-air come from?

Earliest known use

1970s

The earliest known use of the adjective zinc-air is in the 1970s.

OED's earliest evidence for zinc-air is from 1970, in the writing of C. L. Mantell.

### Nearby entries

1. zimb, n. 1790–
2. Zimba, n. 1625–
3. Zimbabwe, n. 1891–
4. Zimbabwean, adj. & n. 1961–
5. zimbel, n. 1888–
6. zimme, n. 1848–63
7. Zimmer, n. 1951–
8. zina, n. 1817–
9. zinc, n. 1651–
10. zinc, v. 1843–
11. zinc-air, adj.1970–
12. Zincala, n. 1844–91
13. Zincalo, n. 1841–
14. zinc-alum, n. 1851–
15. zinc-amide, n. 1859–
16. zincate, n. 1872–
17. zinc-blende, n. 1842–
18. zinc-bloom, n. 1842–
19. zinc chloride, n. 1851–
20. zinc chromate, n. 1851–
21. zinc chrome, n. 1892–

## Meaning & use

1. 1970–
   Applied to a type of primary cell employing a zinc anode, a porous carbon cathode able to utilize atmospheric oxygen, and an alkaline electrolyte.
   1. 1970

      > These portable zinc-air batteries are being used in man~pack transceivers, night vision devices, and space satellite communications.

      C. L. Mantell, Batteries & Energy Systems vi. 63
   2. 1978

      > The Gould zinc-air button cell is..used in hearing aids and other devices which require a moderately high current.

      Journal Electrochem. Society vol. 125 333c/2
   electrical
   1. platinum-zinc 1840–
      Formed of alternate plates of platinum and zinc, as a voltaic cell.
   2. Smee 1852–
      Used attributively and in the possessive to designate an obsolete type of primary cell or battery invented by Smee (Phil. Mag. (1840) 16 315)…
   3. Weston 1895–
      attributive and in the genitive. Designating a primary cell with a very low variation of voltage with temperature, used as a standard voltage source…
   4. zinc-air 1970–
      Applied to a type of primary cell employing a zinc anode, a porous carbon cathode able to utilize atmospheric oxygen, and an alkaline electrolyte.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

zinc-air typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zinc-air 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 zinc-air, adj., 1960–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1960 | 0.0054
1970 | 0.006
1980 | 0.0063
1990 | 0.0063
2000 | 0.0072
2010 | 0.0072

### Frequency of zinc-air, adj., 2017–2024

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Modern frequency series are derived from a corpus of 20 billion words, covering the period from 2017 to the present. The corpus is mainly compiled from online news sources, and covers all major varieties of World English.

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 corpus.

Period | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
2017 | 0.01
2018 | 0.009
2019 | 0.01
2020 | 0.015
2021 | 0.014
2022 | 0.014
2023 | 0.016
2024 | 0.016

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

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