zitty, adj.

zitty
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zitty_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 2004

# zittyadjective

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zitty mean?

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

### How common is the adjective zitty?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1970 | 0.0009
1980 | 0.0011
1990 | 0.0011
2000 | 0.0011
2010 | 0.0014

### Where does the adjective zitty come from?

Earliest known use

1970s

The earliest known use of the adjective zitty is in the 1970s.

OED's earliest evidence for zitty is from 1971, in East Village Other.

### Nearby entries

1. zitella, n. a1660–
2. zit-face, n. 1974–
3. zit-faced, adj. 1971–
4. zither, n. 1831–
5. zither, v. 1889–
6. zither banjo, n. 1888–
7. zithering, adj. 1889–
8. zitherist, n. 1866–
9. zither-like, adj. 1881–
10. ziti, n. 1845–
11. zitty, adj.1971–
12. Ziv, n. a1382–
13. zizania, n. 1526–
14. zizany, n. a1400–1803
15. zizel, n. 1775–
16. zizypha, n. 1546–1775
17. zizyphus, n.?1440–
18. zizz, v. 1883–
19. zizz, int. & n. 1824–
20. zizzing, n. 1884–
21. zizzing, adj. 1919–

## Meaning & use

slang (originally U.S.).

1. 1971–
   Having or characterized by pimples or facial acne (frequently with connotations of youth or callowness).
   Stressed as ˈzitty.
   1. 1971

      > Here they were, on second ave jamming in their own zitty way.

      East Village Other 23 March 14
   2. 1979

      > As the beer ran down her body, so did her make-up, revealing a zitty pale complexion.

      Stoutonia (University Wisconsin–Stout) 30 August 4
   3. 1985

      > Is there something lacking in women that they so rarely find zitty, wet-behind-the-ears, awkward, uncertain, tongue-tied, provincial kids less than interesting?

      Syracuse (New York) Herald-Amer. 16 June l2/1
   4. 2002

      > A time machine that works. A device that can transport us from one age to another..do you know what this means? we can skip the zitty teenage years!!

      Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 17 September 19
   pathology U.S. English colloquial and slang
   1. plouky c1440–
      Covered with pimples, spotty.
   2. blobbed 1486–
      Affected with pimples or swellings.
   3. pimpled 1506–
      Having or covered with pimples, pimply; characterized by pimples.
   4. plouked c1540–
      = plouky, adj.
   5. precious 1581
      Probably: carbuncled, pimpled. See also precious-nosed, adj. Obsolete. rare.
   6. whealy 1611
      Pimply.
   7. spotty 1620–
      Having, or characterized by, blemishes, pustules, or pimples on the skin; (in later use) esp. having pimples or acne (frequently with connotations…
   8. pimpling 1628–
      That is erupting in pimples, pimply; that causes pimples or goose pimples.
   9. plouky-faced?1645–
   10. ampery 1736–
       Decaying, rotten; weak; unhealthy or unhealthy-looking; infected; (also) pimply.
   11. pimply 1747–
       Covered with pimples; resembling or suggestive of pimples.
   12. poxy a1758–
       Infected with pox; spotty. Now in weakened colloquial use (chiefly British): of poor quality, useless, worthless (frequently as a general term of…
   13. papulous 1800–
       Medicine. = papular, adj.
   14. papular 1813–
       Consisting of papules; of the nature of or bearing papules.
   15. papulated 1822–
       Bearing or consisting of papules; papular.
   16. whelky 1822–
       Pimply.
   17. pimplous 1906–
       Characterized by pimples; pimply.
   18. zit-faced 1971–
       derogatory. slang (originally U.S.). (Of a person) having pimples or facial acne (frequently with connotations of youth or callowness).
   19. zitty 1971–
       Having or characterized by pimples or facial acne (frequently with connotations of youth or callowness).
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

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

zitty 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 zitty, adj., 1970–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1970 | 0.0009
1980 | 0.0011
1990 | 0.0011
2000 | 0.0011
2010 | 0.0014

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

zitty, adj. was first published in 2004.