zoon, v.

zoon
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoon_v%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zoonverb

## Earlier version

- zoon, v. (and int.) in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the verb zoon mean?

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

This word is used in midland U.S. English and southern U.S. English.

### How common is the verb zoon?

About 0.02occurrences per million words in modern written English

1880 | 0.025
1890 | 0.024
1900 | 0.025
1910 | 0.024
1920 | 0.023
1930 | 0.022
1940 | 0.023
1950 | 0.023
1960 | 0.023
1970 | 0.023
1980 | 0.024
1990 | 0.023
2000 | 0.023
2010 | 0.023

### How is the verb zoon pronounced?

#### British English

/zuːn/
zoon

#### U.S. English

/zun/
zoon

### Where does the verb zoon come from?

Earliest known use

1880s

The earliest known use of the verb zoon is in the 1880s.

OED's earliest evidence for zoon is from 1880, in Notes and Queries.

It is also recorded as an exclamation from the 1860s.

zoon is an imitative or expressive formation.

### Nearby entries

1. zoomorph, n. 1883–
2. zoomorphic, adj. 1849–
3. zoomorphism, n. 1822–
4. zoomorphize, v. 1940–
5. zoomorphizing, n. 1895–
6. zoomorphosed, adj. 1955–
7. zoom shot, n. 1930–
8. zoomy, adj. 1931–
9. zoomythic, adj. 1889–
10. zoon, n. 1851–1905
11. zoon, v.1880–
12. zoon, int. 1863–
13. -zoon, comb. form
14. zoonate, n. 1798–1857
15. zoonerythrin, n. 1882–
16. zoonic, adj. 1798–1853
17. zooning, n. 1885–
18. Zoonist, adj. 1890–97
19. zoonite, n. 1838–
20. zoonitic, adj. 1860–91
21. zoonomic, adj. 1836–

## Etymology

### Summary

An imitative or expressive formation.
Imitative.

Compare zoom v.1, and also earlier june v.

Compare earlier zoon int.…
Imitative.

Compare zoom v.1, and also earlier june v.

Compare earlier zoon int.

### Notes

With the form a-zoonin' in quot. 1880 compare a- prefix2 2.

## Meaning & use

Chiefly U.S. regional (southern and south Midland). Now rare.

1. 1880–
   intransitive. To make a humming, buzzing, or droning sound; to move with, or as if with, such a sound; to move quickly. Also occasionally transitive: to cause to move with such a sound; to propel quickly. Cf. zoom v.1 1
   1. 1880

      > ‘A-zoonin.’—I find this word used by negroes in Georgia to express the humming of bees, as ‘de bees is a-zoonin’.

      Notes & Queries 18 December 488/1
   2. 1883

      > Bimeby Brer Rabbit year de skeeters come zoonin' ‘roun’, en claimin' kin wid 'im.

      J. C. Harris, Nights with Uncle Remus xxxvii. 224
   3. 1893

      > A man, horse, locomotive, or almost anything that goes along swiftly, is said to zune.

      H. A. Shands, Some Peculiarities of Speech in Mississippi 69
   4. 1896

      > I hear a horsefly zooning around.

      Sunday Inter Ocean (Chicago) 16 February 29/1
   5. 1909

      > Zoon, v.i. and tr., to make a humming or buzzing sound, to cause to make such a sound. ‘That rock came zoonin' by my head.’ ‘Watch me zoon this rock.’

      Dialect Notes vol. 3 391
   6. 1922

      > She ‘zooned’ away contentedly, but as she went a couple of sentinels buzzed out to the hive entrance.

      Bee Keepers' Review August 8/2
   7. 1941

      > Seeing his first passenger plane come zooning across the Ohio River, southward bound.

      I. S. Cobb, Exit Laughing xxviii. 348
   8. 1954

      > The only boy in Tipkin that wouldn't tie a string to an old juney bug and listen to him zoon.

      J. O. Killens, Youngblood 12
   U.S. English (midland) U.S. English (southern)
   1. thunder c1374–
      In extended use. intransitive. To make a loud, resounding noise like thunder; to roar. Also (frequently with adverb or prepositional phrase…
   2. hurtle 1509–
      To dash, rush, hurry; esp. with noise.
   3. rattle 1555–
      Denoting motion or travel, with adverb or prepositional construction indicating direction. intransitive. To move (usually rapidly) with a…
   4. skirr 1567–
      To move, run, fly, sail, etc., rapidly or with great impetus. Sometimes implying a whirring sound accompanying the movement. Usually const. with…
   5. whizz 1591–
      To move swiftly with or as with such a sound.
   6. brustle 1638
      To go hastily with a rustling noise. Cf. bustle, v.¹ II.2a.
   7. clatter 1810–
      To move rapidly with such a noise, to rattle along, down, over, etc.
   8. whoosh 1856–
      intransitive. To utter or emit a dull soft sibilant sound, like that of something rushing through the air; to move rapidly with a rushing sound.
   9. fizz 1864–
      To move with a fizzing sound.
   10. zoon 1880–
       intransitive. To make a humming, buzzing, or droning sound; to move with, or as if with, such a sound; to move quickly. Also occasionally transitive…
   11. zing 1899–
       intransitive. Esp. of a bullet or other object passing rapidly through the air: to make a sharp, high-pitched ringing or twanging sound. Hence…
   12. skoosh 1904–
       intransitive. To move rapidly, esp. (of a vehicle) with a swishing sound; to depart quickly. Also in imperative (Children's slang): ‘go away!’…
   13. zoom 1924–
       intransitive. To move or travel very quickly, esp. making a continuous humming, buzzing, or droning sound; to make such a sound while moving…
   14. scream 1943–
       Of an inanimate thing: To make a noise like a scream; spec. to travel swiftly with a screaming noise; also hyperbolically and transferred, of a…
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. hum c1420–
      intransitive. To make a low continuous murmuring sound or note, as a bee or other insect; also said of a top or wheel in rapid rotation, a bell…
   2. boom c1440–
      intransitive. To hum or buzz, as a bee or beetle; to make a loud, deep sound with much resonance, as a cannon, a large bell, the waves of the sea…
   3. sum?1440
      intransitive. To make a buzzing sound.
   4. bum 1499–
      intransitive. To hum or buzz loudly, like a bee, an object moving rapidly through the air, or a crowd of people talking. Chiefly Scottish after…
   5. humble 1617
      intransitive. To rumble; to mumble; to hum or buzz as a bee. Exemplified chiefly in humbling n.²
   6. spin 1851–
      To make a noise like that of spinning.
   7. zoon 1880–
      intransitive. To make a humming, buzzing, or droning sound; to move with, or as if with, such a sound; to move quickly. Also occasionally transitive…
   8. reel 1899–
      intransitive. Of an animal, esp. a grasshopper warbler: to make a rapid buzzing, humming, or clicking noise like that of a reel in motion. Cf. reel…
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. whistle 1697–
      To shoot or drive with a whistling sound.
   2. zoon 1909–
      intransitive. To make a humming, buzzing, or droning sound; to move with, or as if with, such a sound; to move quickly. Also occasionally transitive…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zuːn/
zoon

### U.S. English

/zun/
zoon

####

##### 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
   zune
2. 1800s–
   zoon

## Frequency

zoon typically occurs about 0.02 times per million words in modern written English.

zoon is in frequency band 3, which contains words occurring between 0.01 and 0.1 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 zoon, v., 1880–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1880 | 0.025
1890 | 0.024
1900 | 0.025
1910 | 0.024
1920 | 0.023
1930 | 0.022
1940 | 0.023
1950 | 0.023
1960 | 0.023
1970 | 0.023
1980 | 0.024
1990 | 0.023
2000 | 0.023
2010 | 0.023

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. zooning, n. 1885–
   Chiefly in African American usage: a style of…

zoon, v. was revised in June 2017.

zoon, v. was last modified in July 2023.