zinke, n.

zinke
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zinke_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# zinkenoun

## Earlier version

- zinke in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zinke mean?

There are two meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun zinke. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

zinke has developed meanings and uses in subjects including

organ-playing (late 1700s) music (late 1700s)

### How common is the noun zinke?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1810 | 0.0004
1820 | 0.0003
1830 | 0.0002
1840 | 0.0002
1850 | 0
1860 | 0.00005
1870 | 0.00005
1880 | 0.0001
1890 | 0.0003
1900 | 0.0008
1910 | 0.0013
1920 | 0.0015
1930 | 0.0014
1940 | 0.0016
1950 | 0.0015
1960 | 0.0014
1970 | 0.0009
1980 | 0.0004
1990 | 0.0003
2000 | 0.0003
2010 | 0.0002

### How is the noun zinke pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɪŋkə/
ZING-kuh
/ˈtsɪŋkə/
TSING-kuh

#### U.S. English

/ˈzɪŋkə/
ZING-kuh
/ˈtsɪŋkə/
TSING-kuh

### Where does the noun zinke come from?

Earliest known use

late 1700s

The earliest known use of the noun zinke is in the late 1700s.

OED's earliest evidence for zinke is from 1773, in the writing of Charles Burney, musician and author.

zinke is a borrowing from German.

Etymons: German Zinke, Zink.

### Nearby entries

1. zingiber, n.?1720–
2. zingiberaceous, adj. 1821–
3. zingily, adv. 1951–
4. zinginess, n. 1938–
5. zinging, n. 1921–
6. zinging, adj. 1915–
7. zingingly, adv. 1952–
8. zingo, int. 1906–
9. zingy, adj. 1938–
10. Zinjanthropus, n. 1959–
11. zinke, n.1773–
12. zinnia, n. 1761–
13. zinnober green, n. 1879–
14. zinnwaldite, n. 1850–
15. zino, n. 1982–
16. Zinovievite, adj. & n. 1936–
17. Zinoviev letter, n. 1924–
18. Zion, n. Old English–
19. Zion Curtain, n. 1951–
20. Zioner, n. 1681–1760
21. Zionism, n. 1896–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from German.
Etymons: German Zinke, Zink.
< German Zinke point, spike, prong, tine (in Old High German as zinko), woodwind instrument (in Middle High German as zinke), organ reed (18th cent. or earlier; in the music senses now in form Zink…
< German Zinke point, spike, prong, tine (in Old High German as zinko), woodwind instrument (in Middle High German as zinke), organ reed (18th cent. or earlier; in the music senses now in form Zink), probably (with a suffix) < the same Germanic base as tine n.1

## Meaning & use

1. 1.
   1773–
   An organ reed stop resembling a muted trumpet in tone.
   1. 1773

      > Pedals..15. Cink, 2 [feet]. A cornet, horn, or shawm. [English name] Octave Clarion.

      C. Burney, Present State of Music in Germany vol. II. 308
   2. 1776

      > The organ at Haerlem is said to have sixty stops, many of them but little known to the English workmen, among which are the Bourdon, Gemsen-horn, the Quintadena, Schalmey, Dulciana, Buzain, and Zink.

      J. Hawkins, General History Music vol. IV. i. x. 149
   3. 1935

      > The zincke and regal are reed stops of thin tone with curiously shaped resonators of very short length.

      Organ January 141
   4. 2001

      > One of the most interesting reeds is the Zincke on the Ober Positiv—a short compass rank matching the scale of instrumental cornett.

      Organists' Review May 107/1
   organ-playing
   1. regal 1555–
      In a pipe organ: an old reed stop made with various patterns of resonator which qualify the tone but do not noticeably control the pitch. Also…
   2. curtal 1582–1876
      An obsolete musical instrument, a kind of bassoon; also an organ stop of similar quality of tone; also double curtal.
   3. trumpet 1659–
      Something of the nature of or resembling a trumpet. A reed-stop on the organ, of powerful tone resembling that of a trumpet.
   4. cremona 1660–
      An organ reed-stop of 8-foot tone.
   5. cromorne 1694–
      A reed-stop on an organ; = krummhorn, n., cremona, n.²
   6. hautboy c1700–
      A reed-stop on an organ: = oboe, n.¹ 2.
   7. horn 1722–
      An 8-foot reed-stop on an organ.
   8. serpent 1730–
      A bass wind instrument of deep tone, about 8 feet long, made of wood covered with leather and formed with three U-shaped turns. (The instrument…
   9. bombarde 1768–
      A bass reed stop on the organ, characterized by its loud, powerful sound and brassy timbre. Cf. bombardon, n. 3.
   10. dulcian 1773–
       Either of two different types of organ stop; spec. (a) a soft flue stop; = dulciana, n. (now rare); (b) a soft reed stop of 8' or 16' tone…
   11. zinke 1773–
       An organ reed stop resembling a muted trumpet in tone.
   12. trumpet stop 1795–
       (In trumpet, n. 2a.)
   13. musette 1825–
       An organ stop consisting of reed pipes with conical resonators, used in French organs of the 17th and 18th centuries.
   14. fagotto 1832–
       An organ stop having a tone resembling that of the bassoon. Cf. bassoon, n. 2a.
   15. oboe 1834–
       An organ reed stop imitating the oboe's penetrating tone; = hautboy, n. 1c.
   16. trombone 1837–
       Music. A reed-stop in the organ of similar tone.
   17. physharmonica 1838–
       An early form of harmonium, in which metal springs are set in vibration by a current of air. Also: a kind of reed stop on the organ, imitating the…
   18. cornopean 1840–
       An 8-ft. reed-stop on an organ.
   19. ophicleide 1842–
       A powerful reed stop on the organ, a variety of the tuba.
   20. posaune 1843–
       An organ reed stop resembling a trombone in tone.
   21. bombardon 1852–
       A bass reed stop on the organ, having a loud, powerful sound and a brassy timbre. Cf. bombarde, n. 1.
   22. button regal 1852–81
       An organ reed stop consisting of a short, narrow cylinder topped with a hollow, perforated, ball-shaped knob, used in German organs of the 18th cent.
   23. shawm 1852–
       transferred. An organ stop resembling the shawm in quality of sound.
   24. vox angelica 1852–
       Any of various types of organ stop producing a tone supposedly suggestive of the voices of angels; esp. one having an 8-foot pitch and two pipes…
   25. busaun 1855–76
       = posaune, n. 2. Obsolete.
   26. tuba 1858–
       Music. An 8-foot high-pressure reed-stop in an organ.
   27. clarinet 1876–
       An organ stop of a quality of tone like that of this instrument; = cremona, n.²
   28. rackett 1876–
       Originally and usually rankett. An organ stop of the regal type, with short resonators and a soft tone, originally popular in the 16th cent., but…
   29. tenoroon 1876–
       A reed-stop in an organ, resembling the oboe stop, but not extending below tenor C. Also applied to any stop not extending below tenor C; also attrib…
   30. clarionet 1880–
       = clarinet, n. 2.
   31. krummhorn 1880–
       An organ reed-stop of 8 ft. pitch, resembling the clarinet in tone; called also cromorne, n., and corruptly cremona, n.²
   View in Historical Thesaurus
2. 2.
   1776–
   A curved or straight wind instrument, mainly of the 15th to 17th centuries, made of wood or ivory, with a conical bore, finger holes, and usually a detachable mouthpiece. Cf. cornet n.1 I.1(b).
   1. 1776

      > Luscinius next exhibits the forms of four other wind instruments, namely, 1. the Ruspfeiff. 2. The Krumhorn. 3. The Gemsen horn. And 4. the Zincke.

      J. Hawkins, General History Music vol. II. iv. iv. 452
   2. 1894

      > They had to sound the zinke at every hour, blow a signal on the horn, to warn the citizens of an enemy's approach, and raise the alarm in case of fire.

      J. A. Kappey, Military Music i. 14
   3. 1917

      > A zinka (wind instrument) of the 17th century, made of ivory with ornamental mountings.

      Museums Journal vol. 16 239
   4. 1983

      > These are the Zinke or cornetti, wooden instruments covered with leather, but blown with a mouthpiece.

      N. Del Mar, Anat. of Orchestra (new edition) 336
   music
   1. horn Old English–
      A wind instrument more or less resembling a horn in shape, and originally formed of the horn of some beast, now made of brass or other material…
   2. cornet c1440–
      †a. A wind instrument made from or resembling a horn; a horn (obsolete). b. Early Music. Now usually in the form cornett. A curved or straight wind…
   3. corn 1477
      A musical instrument, a horn.
   4. mute cornet 1637–
      A straight woodwind instrument, typically made of wood, horn, or ivory, with finger holes and an integral conical mouthpiece.
   5. zinke 1776–
      A curved or straight wind instrument, mainly of the 15th to 17th centuries, made of wood or ivory, with a conical bore, finger holes, and usually a…
   6. cornetto muto 1825–
      A name given to a straight wind instrument, mainly of the 15th to 17th centuries and typically made of wood, horn, or ivory, with finger holes, and…
   7. cornetto 1857–
      A name given to a curved or straight wind instrument, mainly of the 15th to 17th centuries, made of wood or ivory, with a conical bore, finger…
   8. tooter 1860–
      A horn or other wind-instrument.
   9. cornetto basso 1895–
      A name given to a low-pitched wind instrument, mainly of the 15th to 17th centuries, made of wood or ivory, with a conical bore, finger holes, and…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɪŋkə/
ZING-kuh
/ˈtsɪŋkə/
TSING-kuh

### U.S. English

/ˈzɪŋkə/
ZING-kuh
/ˈtsɪŋkə/
TSING-kuh

####

##### 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

### Inflections

Plural: unchanged, (rare) zinkes

### Variant forms

##### α.

1. 1700s
   cink
2. 1700s–
   zink (plural zinks)

##### β.

1. 1700s–
   zincke
2. 1800s–
   zinke
3. 1900s
   zinka

## Frequency

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

zinke 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 zinke, n., 1810–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1810 | 0.0004
1820 | 0.0003
1830 | 0.0002
1840 | 0.0002
1850 | 0
1860 | 0.00005
1870 | 0.00005
1880 | 0.0001
1890 | 0.0003
1900 | 0.0008
1910 | 0.0013
1920 | 0.0015
1930 | 0.0014
1940 | 0.0016
1950 | 0.0015
1960 | 0.0014
1970 | 0.0009
1980 | 0.0004
1990 | 0.0003
2000 | 0.0003
2010 | 0.0002

zinke, n. was revised in March 2021.

zinke, n. was last modified in September 2024.