zona, n.

zona
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zona_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1921; not fully revised

# zonanoun

## Earlier version

- zona in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zona mean?

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

zona has developed meanings and uses in subjects including

pathology (early 1700s) costume (1800s) archaeology (1800s)

#### Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

### How common is the noun zona?

About 0.9occurrences per million words in modern written English

1750 | 0.038
1760 | 0.064
1770 | 0.062
1780 | 0.068
1790 | 0.074
1800 | 0.077
1810 | 0.06
1820 | 0.072
1830 | 0.09
1840 | 0.1
1850 | 0.14
1860 | 0.2
1870 | 0.26
1880 | 0.28
1890 | 0.33
1900 | 0.32
1910 | 0.32
1920 | 0.34
1930 | 0.43
1940 | 0.54
1950 | 0.69
1960 | 0.85
1970 | 0.94
1980 | 0.93
1990 | 0.89
2000 | 0.86
2010 | 0.78

### How is the noun zona pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzəʊnə/

### Where does the noun zona come from?

Earliest known use

early 1700s

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

OED's earliest evidence for zona is from 1706, in Phillips's New World of Words.

zona is a borrowing from Latin.

Etymons: Latin zōna.

### Nearby entries

1. zombie-like, adj. & adv. 1932–
2. zombie worm, n. 2005–
3. zombification, n. 1968–
4. zombified, adj. 1965–
5. zombify, v. 1950–
6. zombocalypse, n. 2007–
7. zomboid, adj. 1963–
8. zom-com, n. 2004–
9. zomotherapeutic, adj. 1900–
10. zomotherapy, n. 1900–
11. zona, n.1706–
12. zona ignea, n. 1818–
13. zonal, adj. 1867–
14. zonality, n. 1909–
15. zonally, adv. 1873–
16. zonal marking, n. 1958–
17. zona pellucida, n. 1841–
18. zona radiata, n. 1881–
19. zona reticularis, n. 1874–
20. zonarious, adj. 1656–
21. zonary, adj. 1881–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Latin.
Etymon: Latin zōna.
< Latin zōna (see zone n.).

## Meaning & use

1. 1.
   1800–
   Archaeology. A girdle: = zone n. 3.
   1. 1800

      > Both the tænia and zona are concealed by drapery falling over them.

      J. Dallaway, Anecdotes of Arts in England 249
   costume archaeology
   1. girdle Old English–
      A belt worn round the waist to secure or confine the garments; also employed as a means of carrying light articles, esp. a weapon or purse.
   2. seynt a1350–1530
      A girdle.
   3. ceinte c1386–1530
      A girdle; the woven portion of a girdle.
   4. senture a1400–60
      A girdle.
   5. love-lace c1400
      A girdle given as a love-token.
   6. girding a1425–1600
      That which girds; esp. A girdle. (Also girding-up). Obsolete.
   7. cingle c1430–
      A girdle; anything that girds or surrounds; a girth, a belt.
   8. seynture c1460
      A waist-belt.
   9. cengle a1492
      A girdle.
   10. waist 1550–1616
       A girdle. Obsolete.
   11. waist-girdle 1553–
   12. centure 1562–1624
       A belt or girdle; = cincture, n. 3a.
   13. zone 1608–
       A girdle or belt, as a part of dress. (Chiefly poetic.) Hence, any encircling band.
   14. cummerbund 1616–
       A sash or girdle worn round the waist; a waist-belt.
   15. cincture 1667–
       concrete. That which encircles or encompasses. spec. A girdle or belt for the waist. (Mostly poetic, or in reference to ancient times.)
   16. waist-belt 1672–
   17. centurine 1696
       A type of small waistband or girdle. Cf. centure, n.
   18. zona 1800–
       Archaeology. A girdle: = zone, n. 3.
   19. faja 1841–
       A sash, girdle.
   20. ceinture 1856–
       = cincture, n.
   21. crios 1899–
       A multicoloured handwoven woollen girdle or belt, originally made in the Aran Islands and typically worn there by men. Also as a modifier, esp. in…
   View in Historical Thesaurus
2. 2.
   1706–
   Used in Anatomy with various qualifying adjectives to denote certain structures or parts of structures (see quots., and cf. zone n. 6).
   1. 1706

      > Zona... a kind of Herpes, or Shingles call'd Holy Fire.

      Phillips's New World of Words (new edition)
   2. 1818–20

      > Herpes Zoster, Zona; or Zona ignea: the shingles.

      E. Thompson, Cullen's Nosologia (ed. 3) 331
   3. 1899

      > Yet there has never been any confusion with regard to H[erpes] Zoster, or Zona, since the disease was first described.

      T. C. Allbutt et al., System of Medicine vol. VIII. 616
   pathology
   1. stead Old English–1470
      A definite spot on a surface, esp. on the surface of the body. Obsolete.
   2. region a1398–
      An area of the body or of a part of the body, organ, etc.; (Anatomy, Medicine, and Zoology) such an area defined by surface landmarks, proximity to…
   3. zona 1706–
      Used in Anatomy with various qualifying adjectives to denote certain structures or parts of structures (see quots., and cf. zone, n. 6).
   4. territory 1824–
      figurative. Medicine. The region of the body or of an organ served by a specific nerve or blood vessel or group of nerves or vessels.
   5. tract 1841–
      Natural History, etc. A region or area of some natural structure, as a mineral formation, or the body of an animal or plant; most commonly one…
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. shingles a1398–
      Originally: †inflammation or infection of the skin, esp. when accompanied by heat and redness; spec. erysipelas (obsolete). In later use: spec. a…
   2. zona 1706–
      Used in Anatomy with various qualifying adjectives to denote certain structures or parts of structures (see quots., and cf. zone, n. 6).
   3. zoster 1706–
      The disease shingles, herpes zoster. Also attributive.
   4. barngun 1746–
      An eruption of the skin; shingles.
   5. herpes zoster 1807–
      A disease of the skin (or sometimes of a mucous membrane) characterized by the appearance of patches of distinct vesicles. (Applied widely to a…
   6. zona ignea 1818–
      Also simply zona, the disease herpes zoster or shingles.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzəʊnə/

####

##### 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.

## Frequency

zona typically occurs about 0.9 times per million words in modern written English.

zona is in frequency band 4, which contains words occurring between 0.1 and 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 zona, 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 | 0.038
1760 | 0.064
1770 | 0.062
1780 | 0.068
1790 | 0.074
1800 | 0.077
1810 | 0.06
1820 | 0.072
1830 | 0.09
1840 | 0.1
1850 | 0.14
1860 | 0.2
1870 | 0.26
1880 | 0.28
1890 | 0.33
1900 | 0.32
1910 | 0.32
1920 | 0.34
1930 | 0.43
1940 | 0.54
1950 | 0.69
1960 | 0.85
1970 | 0.94
1980 | 0.93
1990 | 0.89
2000 | 0.86
2010 | 0.78

### Frequency of zona, n., 2017–2024

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Modern frequency series are derived from a corpus of 20 billion words, covering the period from 2017 to the present. The corpus is mainly compiled from online news sources, and covers all major varieties of World English.

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 corpus.

Period | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
2017 | 0.022
2018 | 0.024
2019 | 0.027
2020 | 0.029
2021 | 0.036
2022 | 0.038
2023 | 0.041
2024 | 0.041

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. zona ignea, n. 1818–
   Also simply zona, the disease herpes zoster or…

1. zona pellucida, n. 1841–
   The transparent membrane forming the cell-wall of…

1. zona tendinosa, n. 1842–

1. zona fasciculata, n. 1874–

1. zona glomerulosa, n. 1874–

1. zona reticularis, n. 1874–
   The middle, outer, and inner layers respectively…

1. zona radiata, n. 1881–
   A radially striated form of the zona pellucida…

zona, n. was first published in 1921; not fully revised.

zona, n. was last modified in December 2024.