In sense 2 after Germanzoophil (1922 in the source translated in quot. 1922); compare also Frenchzoophile, adjective (1922 or earlier; earlier as noun: see zoophilen.).
Meaning & use
1.
1881–
Ecology. Of a plant or flower: pollinated by animals. In later use also (of a fruit or seed): dispersed by animals. Also: of, relating to, or of the nature of this type of pollination or dispersal. Cf. entomophilousadj., ornithophilousadj.
1881
Nectar..accumulates in the basal part of the corolla, and offers a considerable amount of tempting food to nectar-loving creatures, and this, advertised by the brilliant scarlet of the calyx and corolla, clearly proclaims the flowers to be zoöphilous, or adapted to fertilization by animals of some kind.
American Naturalistvol. 15 265
1893
But zoophilous methods, or pollination by animals, are among flowering plants the most frequent.
H. G. Wells, Text-book Biol.: Part II 52
1908
The zoophilous fruit appealing..to a constituency of birds and mammals, must adapt itself to the local fauna.
Journal of Botany, Brit. & Foreignvol. 46 84
1982
Fifty-three species of zoophilous plants occurred in this meadow.
Oikosvol. 39 242/1
2004
Unless such seeds are carried for long distances by animals in the jungle (zoophilous dispersal), rubber seeds in upland areas get dispersed over a few meters.
Econ. Botanyvol. 58 554/2
2015
Zoophilous pollination evolved through associations of flowers and insects.
J. Boenigk et al., Biodiversity & Earth History ii. 136/1
Biology. Of a parasitic organism: that prefers to feed, live, or grow on animals rather than humans. Also: of, relating to, or characteristic of such organisms. Cf. zoophilicadj. 3.
1922
A criticism of the theory of ‘misanthropic’ or ‘zoophilous’ [German ‘zoophilen’] anophelines.
translation of E. Martini in Review of Applied Entomology B. vol. 10 228 (heading)
1949
The zoophilous habits of C[ulex]quinquefasciatus will keep some of them from entering houses.
Public Health Rep. (U.S. Public Health Service) vol. 64 870
1996
The females of a great majority of mosquito species are zoophilous.
E. D. Walker & H. D. Newson in R. W. Merritt & K. W. Cummins, Introd. Aquatic Insects North Amer. (ed. 3) xxiv. 572/1
2002
More than 100 species of zoophilous moths have been observed feeding on lachrymal secretions, primarily in Thailand, Malaysia, and other parts of Southeast Asia.
G. R. Mullen in G. R. Mullen & L. A. Durden, Med. & Vet. Entomology xviii. 375/1
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.
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.
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
zoophilous typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.
zoophilous 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 zoophilous, adj., 1890–2010
* 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
1890
0.0006
1900
0.0011
1910
0.0029
1920
0.0032
1930
0.0036
1940
0.0042
1950
0.0049
1960
0.0051
1970
0.0049
1980
0.0034
1990
0.0032
2000
0.0032
2010
0.0027
Originally published as part of the entry for zoophile, n.
zoophilous, adj. was revised in June 2017.
zoophilous, adj. was last modified in September 2024.