zoot-suited, adj.

zoot-suited
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoot-suited_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zoot-suitedadjective

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zoot-suited mean?

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

### How common is the adjective zoot-suited?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1940 | 0.0036
1950 | 0.0033
1960 | 0.0034
1970 | 0.0035
1980 | 0.0034
1990 | 0.0034
2000 | 0.0037
2010 | 0.0036

### Where does the adjective zoot-suited come from?

Earliest known use

1940s

The earliest known use of the adjective zoot-suited is in the 1940s.

OED's earliest evidence for zoot-suited is from 1942, in the Chicago Defender.

### Nearby entries

1. zootic, adj. 1816–
2. zootokon, n. 1661
3. zootomic, adj. 1801–
4. zootomical, adj. 1799–
5. zootomically, adv. 1849–
6. zootomist, n. 1663–
7. zootomy, n. 1663–
8. zootoxin, n. 1906–
9. zootrophy, n. 1877–
10. zoot suit, n. 1942–
11. zoot-suited, adj.1942–
12. zoot-suiter, n. 1942–
13. zooty, adj. 1942–
14. zootype, n. 1883–
15. zootypic, adj. 1853–
16. zoowoman, n. 1930–
17. zooxanthella, n. 1882–
18. zooxanthellate, adj. & n. 1981–
19. zooxanthin, n. 1868–
20. zoozygosphere, n. 1880–
21. zope, n. 1880–

## Meaning & use

1. 1942–
   Dressed in a zoot suit.
   Stressed as ˈzoot-suited.
   1. 1942

      > Wasp-waist zoot-suited..uniformed wonders.

      Chicago Defender 5 September 14
   2. 1969

      > Zoot-suited spivs and crash-helmeted police.

      Daily Telegraph 31 October 15/2
   3. 2000

      > Two hundred sailors formed a posse..to scout for zoot-suited Mexicans through downtown L.A.

      G. Santoro, Myself when I am Real (2001) iv. 61
   costume
   1. business-suited 1871–
      Wearing a business suit; characterized by the wearing of business suits.
   2. pyjamaed 1883–
      Dressed in pyjamas, pyjama-clad.
   3. blue-suited 1884–
   4. bloomered 1895–
      Wearing bloomer costume.
   5. zoot-suited 1942–
      Dressed in a zoot suit.
   6. bikinied 1959–
      Clad in a bikini.
   7. sailor-suited 1960–
   8. tracksuited 1965–
      Wearing or clad in a tracksuit.
   9. trouser-suited 1966–
      Wearing a trouser suit.
   10. sack-suited 1978–
       sack suit n. a suit with a straight, loose-fitting jacket; a lounge suit. Hence sack-suited adj.
   11. shell-suited 1991–
       Wearing a shell suit (shell suit, n. 2).
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

zoot-suited typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zoot-suited 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 zoot-suited, adj., 1940–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1940 | 0.0036
1950 | 0.0033
1960 | 0.0034
1970 | 0.0035
1980 | 0.0034
1990 | 0.0034
2000 | 0.0037
2010 | 0.0036

Originally published as part of the entry for zoot suit, n.

zoot suit, n. was revised in June 2017.