ziczacnoun
Factsheet
What does the noun ziczac mean?
There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun ziczac. 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 ziczac?
| 1840 | 0.016 |
| 1850 | 0.014 |
| 1860 | 0.013 |
| 1870 | 0.012 |
| 1880 | 0.011 |
| 1890 | 0.0081 |
| 1900 | 0.0066 |
| 1910 | 0.0063 |
| 1920 | 0.0063 |
| 1930 | 0.0059 |
| 1940 | 0.006 |
| 1950 | 0.0057 |
| 1960 | 0.005 |
| 1970 | 0.0043 |
| 1980 | 0.0036 |
| 1990 | 0.003 |
| 2000 | 0.0029 |
| 2010 | 0.0024 |
How is the noun ziczac pronounced?
British English
Where does the noun ziczac come from?
Earliest known use
1840s
The earliest known use of the noun ziczac is in the 1840s.
OED's earliest evidence for ziczac is from 1844, in the writing of William Cooley, geographer and controversialist.
ziczac is a borrowing from Arabic.
Etymons: Arabic zaqzāq.
Nearby entries
- zhuyin zimu, n.1938–
- zhuzh, n.1968–
- zhuzh, v.1970–
- zhuzhy, adj.1968–
- ziamet, n.1807–
- ziarat, n.1776–
- zibeline, n.1585–
- zibet, n.1594–
- zibet-muff, n.1685
- zibib, n.1836–
- ziczac, n.1844–
- zidovudine, n.1987–
- Ziegfeld, n.1913–
- Ziegler, n.1957–
- Ziegler-Natta, n.1965–
- Ziehl, n.1892–
- Ziehl-Neelsen, n.1892–
- ziff, n.1917–
- ZIFT, n.1988–
- zig, n.1978–
- zig, v.1969–
Etymology
Summary
Meaning & use
- 1844–An Egyptian species of plover, Pluvianus ægyptius (Charadrius melanocephalus), which by its cry warns the crocodile of approaching danger; perhaps identical with the trochilus (see trochilus n.1 1).
- 1844
The bird called sagsag, or siksak, by the Arabs, is a species of plover.
W. D. Cooley, Larcher's Notes Herod. vol. I. ii. lxviii. 285 - 1849
I was on the point of firing at his [sc. a sleeping crocodile's] eye, when I observed that he was attended by a bird called a ziczac.
R. Curzon, Visits to Monasteries in Levant xii. 150 - 1882
Almost too lazy to keep his jaws open while the little ‘sicsac’ plover picked his teeth.
P. Robinson, Noah's Ark iii
the world animals birds order Charadriiformes [nouns] family Charadriidae genus Charadrius charadrius melanocephalus (crocodile-bird)- ziczac1844–An Egyptian species of plover, Pluvianus ægyptius (Charadrius melanocephalus), which by its cry warns the crocodile of approaching danger; perhaps…
- crocodile-bird1868–The Egyptian black-headed plover, Pluvianus ægyptius, so called from its habit of eating the insect parasites of the crocodile, probably the…
Pronunciation
British English
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
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.
Forms
Variant forms
Also siksak, sagsag, sicsac, zi(c)kza(c)k.Frequency
ziczac typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.
ziczac 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 of ziczac, n., 1840–2010
* 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 |
|---|---|
| 1840 | 0.016 |
| 1850 | 0.014 |
| 1860 | 0.013 |
| 1870 | 0.012 |
| 1880 | 0.011 |
| 1890 | 0.0081 |
| 1900 | 0.0066 |
| 1910 | 0.0063 |
| 1920 | 0.0063 |
| 1930 | 0.0059 |
| 1940 | 0.006 |
| 1950 | 0.0057 |
| 1960 | 0.005 |
| 1970 | 0.0043 |
| 1980 | 0.0036 |
| 1990 | 0.003 |
| 2000 | 0.0029 |
| 2010 | 0.0024 |