Zinjanthropus, n.

zinjanthropus
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zinjanthropus_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2011

# Zinjanthropusnoun

## Earlier version

- Zinjanthropus in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun Zinjanthropus mean?

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

### How common is the noun Zinjanthropus?

About 0.06occurrences per million words in modern written English

1950 | 0.091
1960 | 0.082
1970 | 0.071
1980 | 0.064
1990 | 0.074
2000 | 0.039
2010 | 0.028

### How is the noun Zinjanthropus pronounced?

#### British English

/zɪnˈdʒanθrəpəs/
zin-JAN-thruh-puhss

#### U.S. English

/ˌzɪnˈdʒænθrəpəs/
zin-JAN-thruh-puhss

### Where does the noun Zinjanthropus come from?

Earliest known use

1950s

The earliest known use of the noun Zinjanthropus is in the 1950s.

OED's earliest evidence for Zinjanthropus is from 1959, in the writing of Louis Leakey, archaeologist and palaeoanthropologist.

Zinjanthropus is a borrowing from Latin.

Etymons: Latin Zinjanthropus.

### Nearby entries

1. zingho, n. 1743
2. zingiber, n.?1720–
3. zingiberaceous, adj. 1821–
4. zingily, adv. 1951–
5. zinginess, n. 1938–
6. zinging, n. 1921–
7. zinging, adj. 1915–
8. zingingly, adv. 1952–
9. zingo, int. 1906–
10. zingy, adj. 1938–
11. Zinjanthropus, n.1959–
12. zinke, n. 1773–
13. zinnia, n. 1761–
14. zinnober green, n. 1879–
15. zinnwaldite, n. 1850–
16. zino, n. 1982–
17. Zinovievite, adj. & n. 1936–
18. Zinoviev letter, n. 1924–
19. Zion, n. Old English–
20. Zion Curtain, n. 1951–
21. Zioner, n. 1681–1760

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Latin.
Etymon: Latin Zinjanthropus.
< scientific Latin Zinjanthropus, former genus name (L. S. B. Leakey 1959: see quot. 1959) < Zinj (variant of Zanj (Arabic Zanj, Persian Zang), a medieval name used in Arabic and Persian sources for an…
< scientific Latin Zinjanthropus, former genus name (L. S. B. Leakey 1959: see quot. 1959) < Zinj (variant of Zanj (Arabic Zanj, Persian Zang), a medieval name used in Arabic and Persian sources for an area in East Africa, including the Horn of Africa and also parts of modern-day Kenya and Tanzania (compare the first part of the name of Zanzibar: see Zanzibari n.)) + ancient Greek ἄνθρωπος man (see anthropo- comb. form), on account of the first specimen having been found in Tanzania.

### Notes

With the place name Zanj, Zinj compare Arabic zanj, zinj (noun) dark-skinned inhabitants of Africa collectively, Persian zangī (adjective) of or relating to the dark-skinned inhabitants of Africa (Pahlavi zangīg), Hellenistic Greek Ζίγγις, the name of an unidentified landmark on the East African coast (2nd cent. a.d. in Ptolemy), all probably ultimately independently < an otherwise unrecorded name in an East African language.

## Meaning & use

Palaeontology. Now historical.

1. 1959–
   An extinct robust hominid first known from a fossil skull found by Mary Leakey at Olduvai (now Oldupai), Tanzania, formerly known as Zinjanthropus boisei but now classified as Paranthropus (or Australopithecus) boisei. Also: the former genus Zinjanthropus itself.
   The original specimen was nicknamed ‘Zinj’ (cf. Nutcracker Man n.).
   1. 1959

      > Zinjanthropus gen nov... A new genus of the Hominidae.

      L. S. B. Leakey in Nature 15 August 492/1
   2. 1962

      > Dr. Leakey's famous ‘nutcracker man’ Zinjanthropus (which has now been dated as having lived over 1,000,000 years ago).

      Listener 5 April 589/1
   3. 1989

      > The Leakeys began to unearth many important fossils from the Rift Valley..from species named ‘Zinjanthropus’ and ‘Homo habilis’.

      A. J. Jeffreys in J. R. Durant, Human Origins vi. 83
   4. 2007

      > Zinjanthropus gave the impression of a much more muscular masticatory apparatus than robust australopiths known at the time.

      C. J. Cela-Conde & F. J. Ayala, Human Evolution v. 159/1
   animals palaeontology historical
   1. missing link 1820–
      Something lacking to complete a series or to form an intermediate between two things, esp. in an evolutionary process; (Physical Anthropology) a…
   2. apeman 1864–
      Originally: a hypothetical creature intermediate in character and development between apes and humans. In later use: any of various early…
   3. Pithecanthropus 1873–83
      A hypothetical creature bridging the gap in evolutionary development between apes and man. Obsolete.
   4. Oreopithecus 1878–
      An extinct ape, Oreopithecus bambolii, known from numerous late Miocene fossil remains found chiefly in Italy, and dated to about eight million…
   5. Broken Hill 1921–
      As a modifier. Used with reference to an extinct hominid similar to Neanderthal man, known from fossil remains found at Broken Hill, Northern…
   6. dryopithecine 1948–
      A dryopithecine ape.
   7. Zinjanthropus 1959–
      An extinct robust hominid first known from a fossil skull found by Mary Leakey at Olduvai (now Oldupai), Tanzania, formerly known as Zinjanthropus b…
   8. Orrorin 2001–
      An extinct hominid, Orrorin tugenensis, known from late Miocene fossil remains found in the Tugen Hills of Kenya, and dated to between 6.2 and…
   9. Sahelanthropus 2002–
      An extinct hominid, Sahelanthropus tchadensis, known from late Miocene fossil remains found in northern Chad, and dated to about seven million years…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zɪnˈdʒanθrəpəs/
zin-JAN-thruh-puhss

### U.S. English

/ˌzɪnˈdʒænθrəpəs/
zin-JAN-thruh-puhss

####

##### 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

Zinjanthropus typically occurs about 0.06 times per million words in modern written English.

Zinjanthropus is in frequency band 3, which contains words occurring between 0.01 and 0.1 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 Zinjanthropus, n., 1950–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1950 | 0.091
1960 | 0.082
1970 | 0.071
1980 | 0.064
1990 | 0.074
2000 | 0.039
2010 | 0.028

Zinjanthropus, n. was revised in September 2011.

Zinjanthropus, n. was last modified in July 2023.