zebra wolf, n.

zebra-wolf
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zebra-wolf_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# zebra wolfnoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zebra wolf mean?

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

### How common is the noun zebra wolf?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1840 | 0.0006
1850 | 0.0005
1860 | 0.0005
1870 | 0.0005
1880 | 0.0005
1890 | 0.0004
1900 | 0.0003
1910 | 0.0003
1920 | 0.0002
1930 | 0.0002
1940 | 0.0001
1950 | 0.0001
1960 | 0.0001
1970 | 0.0001
1980 | 0.0001
1990 | 0.0001
2000 | 0.0001
2010 | 0.0001

### Where does the noun zebra wolf come from?

Earliest known use

1800s

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

OED's earliest evidence for zebra wolf is from 1808, in Transactions Linnean Society.

### Nearby entries

1. zebra poison, n. 1871–74
2. zebra print, n. & adj. 1932–
3. zebra rhomb, n. 1770–1844
4. zebra rock, n. 1895–
5. zebra rush, n. 1882–
6. zebra shark, n. 1804–
7. zebra skin, n. 1774–
8. zebra spider, n. 1806–
9. zebra suit, n. 1853–
10. zebra swallowtail, n. 1855–
11. zebra wolf, n.1808–
12. zebrawood, n. 1768–
13. zebra woodpecker, n. 1884–
14. zebrina, n. 1846–
15. zebrine, adj. a1810–
16. zebroid, adj. & n. 1881–
17. zebrule, n. 1899–
18. zebu, n. 1771–
19. zecchino, n. 1572–
20. Zechstein, n. 1798–
21. zed, n. c1175–

## Meaning & use

Now historical.

1. 1808–
   The thylacine or Tasmanian wolf, Thylacinus cynocephalus; cf. zebra opossum n.
   1. 1808

      > It is vulgarly called the Zebra Opossum, Zebra Wolf, &c.

      Transactions Linnean Society vol. 9 175
   2. 1939

      > The Tasmanian wolf, or pouched dog, is sometimes called the zebra wolf.

      Helena (Montana) Independent 13 August 12/6
   3. 2014

      > Tasmanian tiger, zebra-wolf, how might you be summoned now your memory's thin and rare?

      L. Jacobson, South in World 41
   animals historical
   1. zebra opossum 1808–
      The thylacine or Tasmanian wolf, Thylacinus cynocephalus; cf. zebra wolf, n.
   2. zebra wolf 1808–
      The thylacine or Tasmanian wolf, Thylacinus cynocephalus; cf. zebra opossum, n.
   3. tiger 1829–
      Applied to other than feline beasts.
   4. hyena 1832–
      A name of the Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger, the most formidable of Australasian animals.
   5. thylacine 1838–
      The native Tasmanian ‘wolf’ or ‘zebra-wolf’, Thylacinus cynocephalus, the largest of existing carnivorous marsupials (now very scarce or extinct).
   6. Tasmanian wolf 1843–
      The thylacine, Thylacinus cynocephalus; cf. Tasmanian tiger at tiger, n. 2c(a).
   7. wolf 1891–
      Applied to other animals in some way resembling wolves. (a) In South Africa, a hyena: see also aardwolf, n., strand-wolf, n., tiger-wolf, n. (b) A…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

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

zebra wolf 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 zebra wolf, n., 1840–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1840 | 0.0006
1850 | 0.0005
1860 | 0.0005
1870 | 0.0005
1880 | 0.0005
1890 | 0.0004
1900 | 0.0003
1910 | 0.0003
1920 | 0.0002
1930 | 0.0002
1940 | 0.0001
1950 | 0.0001
1960 | 0.0001
1970 | 0.0001
1980 | 0.0001
1990 | 0.0001
2000 | 0.0001
2010 | 0.0001

Originally published as part of the entry for zebra, n.

zebra, n. was revised in June 2018.