zirconite, n.

zirconite
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zirconite_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# zirconitenoun

## Earlier version

- zirconite in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zirconite mean?

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

### How common is the noun zirconite?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1810 | 0.0019
1820 | 0.0015
1830 | 0.0013
1840 | 0.0014
1850 | 0.0012
1860 | 0.0007
1870 | 0.0005
1880 | 0.0004
1890 | 0.0005
1900 | 0.0006
1910 | 0.001
1920 | 0.0013
1930 | 0.0014
1940 | 0.0015
1950 | 0.0016
1960 | 0.0016
1970 | 0.0015
1980 | 0.001
1990 | 0.0008
2000 | 0.0007
2010 | 0.0006

### How is the noun zirconite pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzəːkənʌɪt/
ZUR-kuh-night

#### U.S. English

/ˈzərkəˌnaɪt/
ZURR-kuh-night

### Where does the noun zirconite come from?

Earliest known use

1800s

The earliest known use of the noun zirconite is in the 1800s.

OED's earliest evidence for zirconite is from 1806, in the writing of Stephen Weston, antiquary and classical scholar.

zirconite is a borrowing from German.

Etymons: German Zirkonit.

### Nearby entries

1. zirbal, adj.?a1425–
2. zirbus, n. a1400–
3. zircaloy, n. 1953–
4. zircon, n. 1794–
5. zirconate, n. 1820–
6. zircon blue, n. & adj. 1928–
7. zircon earth, n. 1794–
8. zirconia, n. 1794–
9. zirconian, adj. 1802–
10. zirconic, adj. 1804–
11. zirconite, n.1806–
12. zirconitic, adj. 1883–
13. zirconium, n. 1808–
14. zircon-like, adj. 1857–
15. zircono-, comb. form
16. zirconolite, n. 1957–
17. zircon-syenite, n. 1813–
18. zirconyl, n. 1887–
19. zirkelite, n. 1895–
20. zit, n. 1912–
21. zit cream, n. 1968–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from German.
Etymon: German Zirkonit.
< German Zirkonit (1801 or earlier) < Zirkon zircon n. + ‑it ‑ite suffix1.

Compare French zirconite (1808 or earlier in the source translated in quot. 1811 at main sense).

## Meaning & use

Mineralogy.

1. 1806–
   The mineral zircon; esp. a greyish or brownish variety of this.
   1. 1806

      > Zirconit is of the colour of a clove-gilliflower, and at times of an hyacinthine red.

      S. Weston, Werneria vol. II. 64
   2. 1811

      > This system..has not disturbed the union which Nature has established between zircon, hyacinth, and zirconite [French zirconite], garnet and pyrope, quartz and iron-flint (eisenkiesel).

      translation of R. Chenevix, Observ. Mineral. Syst. 31
   3. 1850

      > Zirconite presents grayish or brownish tints, and is frequently rough or opaque.

      J. D. Dana, System of Mineralogy (ed. 3) 379
   4. 1920

      > There are numerous commercial disadvantages..which must be overcome before the full refractory value of zirconite is developed.

      Foundry 15 November 913/1
   5. 2012

      > This factory mines and processes this beach sand for extracting rare earth minerals (zirconite, illuminite, etc.).

      Journal Coastal Research vol. 28 135/1
   minerals
   1. jargon 1769–
      A translucent, colourless, or smoky variety of the mineral zircon, found in Sri Lanka.
   2. zircon 1794–
      A mineral which consists of zirconium silicate and occurs as prismatic crystals, most commonly light or reddish brown but sometimes colourless…
   3. zirconite 1806–
      The mineral zircon; esp. a greyish or brownish variety of this.
   4. hyacinth 1879–
      A precious stone. (a) Rendering or representing Greek ὑάκινθος, Latin hyacinthus, ancient name of a precious stone of a blue colour, probably the…
   5. Matura diamond 1886–
      transferred. Applied (usually with distinguishing epithet) to other crystalline minerals, resembling the diamond in brilliancy; as Bristol diamond…
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. jargon 1769–
      A translucent, colourless, or smoky variety of the mineral zircon, found in Sri Lanka.
   2. zircon 1794–
      A mineral which consists of zirconium silicate and occurs as prismatic crystals, most commonly light or reddish brown but sometimes colourless…
   3. zirconite 1806–
      The mineral zircon; esp. a greyish or brownish variety of this.
   4. Matara diamond 1807–
      A colourless or smoky variety of zircon used as a gem; = jargon, n.² Also: a stone of this variety.
   5. malacon 1854–
      A soft brown altered form of zircon.
   6. hyacinth 1879–
      A precious stone. (a) Rendering or representing Greek ὑάκινθος, Latin hyacinthus, ancient name of a precious stone of a blue colour, probably the…
   7. lavenite 1886–
      Silicate of zirconium, found in brown monoclinic crystals.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzəːkənʌɪt/
ZUR-kuh-night

### U.S. English

/ˈzərkəˌnaɪt/
ZURR-kuh-night

####

##### 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. 1800s
   zirconit
2. 1800s–
   zirconite

## Frequency

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

zirconite 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 zirconite, 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 | 0.0019
1820 | 0.0015
1830 | 0.0013
1840 | 0.0014
1850 | 0.0012
1860 | 0.0007
1870 | 0.0005
1880 | 0.0004
1890 | 0.0005
1900 | 0.0006
1910 | 0.001
1920 | 0.0013
1930 | 0.0014
1940 | 0.0015
1950 | 0.0016
1960 | 0.0016
1970 | 0.0015
1980 | 0.001
1990 | 0.0008
2000 | 0.0007
2010 | 0.0006

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. zirconitic, adj. 1883–
   Of the nature of or containing zirconite.

zirconite, n. was revised in March 2021.

zirconite, n. was last modified in July 2023.