zingiberaceous, adj.

zingiberaceous
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zingiberaceous_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# zingiberaceousadjective

## Earlier version

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

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zingiberaceous mean?

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

### How common is the adjective zingiberaceous?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1850 | 0.0005
1860 | 0.0006
1870 | 0.0012
1880 | 0.0011
1890 | 0.0011
1900 | 0.0012
1910 | 0.0012
1920 | 0.0012
1930 | 0.0012
1940 | 0.0007
1950 | 0.0007
1960 | 0.0006
1970 | 0.0005
1980 | 0.0004
1990 | 0.0005
2000 | 0.0004
2010 | 0.0003

### How is the adjective zingiberaceous pronounced?

#### British English

/ˌzɪndʒᵻbəˈreɪʃəs/
zin-juh-buh-RAY-shuhss

#### U.S. English

/ˌzɪndʒəbəˈreɪʃəs/
zin-juh-buh-RAY-shuhss

### Where does the adjective zingiberaceous come from?

Earliest known use

1820s

The earliest known use of the adjective zingiberaceous is in the 1820s.

OED's earliest evidence for zingiberaceous is from 1821, in the writing of Samuel Frederick Gray, naturalist and pharmacologist.

zingiberaceous is a borrowing from Latin, combined with an English element.

Etymons: Latin Zingiberaceae, ‑ous suffix.

### Nearby entries

1. zingana, n.² 1911–
2. Zingani, n. 1581–1879
3. Zingara, n. 1756–
4. Zingaro, n. 1600–
5. zingel, n. 1803–
6. zingelin perch, n. 1803
7. zinger, n. 1906–
8. Zingg, n. 1941–
9. zingho, n. 1743
10. zingiber, n.?1720–
11. zingiberaceous, adj.1821–
12. zingily, adv. 1951–
13. zinginess, n. 1938–
14. zinging, n. 1921–
15. zinging, adj. 1915–
16. zingingly, adv. 1952–
17. zingo, int. 1906–
18. zingy, adj. 1938–
19. Zinjanthropus, n. 1959–
20. zinke, n. 1773–
21. zinnia, n. 1761–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Latin, combined with an English element.
Etymons: Latin Zingiberaceae, ‑ous suffix.
< scientific Latin Zingiberaceae (1812 or earlier, 1820 as Zinziberaceae; < Zingiber, Zinziber, genus name (see zingiber n.) + ‑aceae: see ‑aceous suffix) + ‑ous suffix…
< scientific Latin Zingiberaceae (1812 or earlier, 1820 as Zinziberaceae; < Zingiber, Zinziber, genus name (see zingiber n.) + ‑aceae: see ‑aceous suffix) + ‑ous suffix.

### Notes

Compare French zingibéracées (1808 or earlier). The form zinziberaceous was listed in Webster's Amer. Dict. Eng. Lang. (1864), but is now disused (see α forms).

## Meaning & use

Botany.

1. 1821–
   Of or relating to the family Zingiberaceae of monocotyledonous herbaceous plants found in tropical regions, including ginger, galangal, turmeric, and cardamom.
   In quot. 1821: resembling (that of) a plant of this family.
   α forms
   1. 1821

      > Corallorhiza... Herb light brown, leafless; root zinziberaceous, fleshy.

      S. F. Gray, Natural Arrangement of British Plants vol. II. 215
   2. 1913

      > A zinziberaceous plant from the eastern Tropics, whose root furnishes the galingale used by the natives for indigestion.

      Seeds & Plants Imported (U.S. Department of Agric., Bull. No. 282) 89
   3. 1953

      > The hearth proper consists of layers of leaves (of the banana or of zinziberaceous plants) covered with sand or clay.

      Philippine Journal Science vol. 82 87
   β forms
   1. 1841

      > The leaves of both this and the Zingiberaceous order are plaited into baskets by the Indians.

      J. Lindley, Elements of Botany (ed. 4) 177
   2. 1921

      > A perennial zingiberaceous herb attaining a height of 3 m.

      H. W. Youngken, Text Book Pharmacognosy ii. 106
   3. 2004

      > The newly discovered Beicegel Creek site..contains a plant assemblage..including..clavate seeds of probable zingiberaceous affinity.

      International Journal Plant Science vol. 165 1136/1
   plants
   1. scitamineous 1783–
      Of or relating to the taxonomic group Scitamineae, a former order of monocotyledonous tropical plants that included the present-day families Musaceae…
   2. zingiberaceous 1821–
      Of or relating to the family Zingiberaceae of monocotyledonous herbaceous plants found in tropical regions, including ginger, galangal, turmeric…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˌzɪndʒᵻbəˈreɪʃəs/
zin-juh-buh-RAY-shuhss

### U.S. English

/ˌzɪndʒəbəˈreɪʃəs/
zin-juh-buh-RAY-shuhss

####

##### 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

## Forms

### Variant forms

#### 1.

##### α.

1. 1800s–1900s
   zinziberaceous

##### β.

1. 1800s–
   zingiberaceous

## Frequency

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

zingiberaceous 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 zingiberaceous, 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 | 0.0005
1860 | 0.0006
1870 | 0.0012
1880 | 0.0011
1890 | 0.0011
1900 | 0.0012
1910 | 0.0012
1920 | 0.0012
1930 | 0.0012
1940 | 0.0007
1950 | 0.0007
1960 | 0.0006
1970 | 0.0005
1980 | 0.0004
1990 | 0.0005
2000 | 0.0004
2010 | 0.0003

zingiberaceous, adj. was revised in March 2021.

zingiberaceous, adj. was last modified in July 2023.