zingiber, n.

zingiber
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zingiber_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# zingibernoun

## Earlier version

- zingiber in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zingiber mean?

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

### How common is the noun zingiber?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1750 | 0.015
1760 | 0.012
1770 | 0.011
1780 | 0.013
1790 | 0.012
1800 | 0.012
1810 | 0.012
1820 | 0.0089
1830 | 0.0095
1840 | 0.0088
1850 | 0.0069
1860 | 0.0061
1870 | 0.0056
1880 | 0.0057
1890 | 0.0054
1900 | 0.0048
1910 | 0.0046
1920 | 0.0039
1930 | 0.0035
1940 | 0.0027
1950 | 0.0022
1960 | 0.0018
1970 | 0.0018
1980 | 0.0018
1990 | 0.0018
2000 | 0.0019
2010 | 0.0019

### How is the noun zingiber pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɪndʒᵻbə/
ZIN-juh-buh

#### U.S. English

/ˈzɪndʒəbər/
ZIN-juh-buhr

### Where does the noun zingiber come from?

Earliest known use

early 1700s

The earliest known use of the noun zingiber is in the early 1700s.

OED's earliest evidence for zingiber is from around 1720, in Husbandman's Jewel.

zingiber is a borrowing from Latin.

Etymons: Latin zingiber.

### Nearby entries

1. zingana, n.¹ 1883
2. zingana, n.² 1911–
3. Zingani, n. 1581–1879
4. Zingara, n. 1756–
5. Zingaro, n. 1600–
6. zingel, n. 1803–
7. zingelin perch, n. 1803
8. zinger, n. 1906–
9. Zingg, n. 1941–
10. zingho, n. 1743
11. zingiber, n.?1720–
12. zingiberaceous, adj. 1821–
13. zingily, adv. 1951–
14. zinginess, n. 1938–
15. zinging, n. 1921–
16. zinging, adj. 1915–
17. zingingly, adv. 1952–
18. zingo, int. 1906–
19. zingy, adj. 1938–
20. Zinjanthropus, n. 1959–
21. zinke, n. 1773–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Latin.
Etymon: Latin zingiber.
< classical Latin zingiber, post-classical Latin zinziber: see ginger n. Compare zingiberaceous adj.…
< classical Latin zingiber, post-classical Latin zinziber: see ginger n. Compare zingiberaceous adj.

### Notes

Valid publication as a scientific Latin genus name: (as Zingiber) G. R. Böhmer in C. G. Ludwig Defin. Generum Plantarum (ed. 3, 1760), after earlier use in post-classical Latin form (Zinziber) by P. Miller (1754) and as a specific name in Amomum zingiber (Linnaeus Species Plantarum (1753)).

## Meaning & use

1. ?1720–
   Originally: the spice ginger (now rare). In later use: the ginger plant, Zingiber officinale, or any other plant of the genus Zingiber. Cf. ginger n. A.I
   1. ?1720

      > Take a quarter of an Ounce of Zinziber Pouder, 2 Ounces of fine Loaf Sugar, mix them well with some of the Liquor being warm, and pour it in.

      Husbandman's Jewel 19
   2. 1749

      > Produce that are Commodities in Trade (a) Cocoa, (b) Zingiber or Ginger, (c) Indigo, (d) Cotton-Wool.

      W. Douglass, Summary State Brit. Settlement N.-Amer. vol. I. 128
   3. 1788

      > The zingiber, or common ginger, is a native of the East, and also of some parts of the West Indies.

      W. H. Hall, New Royal Encyclopedia vol. I. at Amomum
   4. 1886

      > Zingiber or ginger has a tonic effect on the stomach unless it is overused.

      Hahnemannian Monthly April 218
   5. 1970

      > Bottles..of everything from Advocaat to Zingiber wine.

      Guardian 2 June 12/5
   6. 1971

      > But the particular forte of most [herbs] is as permanent foliage foils for other, brighter things as well as in their own right, from angelica to zingiber.

      Country Life 20 May 1252/2
   7. 2016

      > Zingibers are best grown from the rhizome.

      MidWeek (Mackay, Queensland) (Nexis) 30 November 13
   1. ginger Old English–
      The rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, which has a distinctive aroma and hot spicy taste, and is used in cooking and as a medicinal agent.
   2. white ginger?c1425–
      Ginger root from which the skin was removed prior to drying or preserving.
   3. race c1450–
      A root (of ginger); = hand, n. II.12b.
   4. ginger spice 1530–
      A hot, fragrant spice made from the dried and powdered rhizome of ginger.
   5. rance 1570–1725
      A root of ginger; = race, n.²
   6. black ginger 1613–
      Ginger root which has not had the dark outer skin scraped away; cf. white ginger, n.
   7. zingiber?1720–
      Originally: the spice ginger (now rare). In later use: the ginger plant, Zingiber officinale, or any other plant of the genus Zingiber. Cf. ginger, n.…
   8. Jamaica ginger 1818–
      White ginger (see ginger, n. A.I.1a).
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɪndʒᵻbə/
ZIN-juh-buh

### U.S. English

/ˈzɪndʒəbər/
ZIN-juh-buhr

####

##### 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. 1700s
   zinziber

##### β.

1. 1700s–
   zingiber

## Frequency

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

zingiber 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 zingiber, n., 1750–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1750 | 0.015
1760 | 0.012
1770 | 0.011
1780 | 0.013
1790 | 0.012
1800 | 0.012
1810 | 0.012
1820 | 0.0089
1830 | 0.0095
1840 | 0.0088
1850 | 0.0069
1860 | 0.0061
1870 | 0.0056
1880 | 0.0057
1890 | 0.0054
1900 | 0.0048
1910 | 0.0046
1920 | 0.0039
1930 | 0.0035
1940 | 0.0027
1950 | 0.0022
1960 | 0.0018
1970 | 0.0018
1980 | 0.0018
1990 | 0.0018
2000 | 0.0019
2010 | 0.0019

zingiber, n. was revised in March 2021.

zingiber, n. was last modified in March 2025.