zat, n.

zat
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zat_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1986; not fully revised

# zatnoun

## Earlier version

- zat in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zat mean?

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

#### 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 zat?

About 0.1occurrences per million words in modern written English

1930 | 0.11
1940 | 0.11
1950 | 0.11
1960 | 0.13
1970 | 0.11
1980 | 0.12
1990 | 0.12
2000 | 0.11
2010 | 0.089

### How is the noun zat pronounced?

#### British English

/zat/

### Where does the noun zat come from?

Earliest known use

1930s

The earliest known use of the noun zat is in the 1930s.

OED's earliest evidence for zat is from 1934, in Humorist.

zat is a variant or alteration of another lexical item.

Etymons: English how's that.

### Nearby entries

1. zarcole, n. 1585–
2. zarda, n. 1899–
3. zardozi, n. 1871–
4. zarf | zurf, n. 1836–
5. zari, n. 1969–
6. zariba, n. 1849–
7. zariba, v. 1885–
8. zarnich, n. 1612–
9. Zarp, n. 1895–
10. zarzuela, n. 1888–
11. zat, n.1934–
12. zatch, n. 1950–
13. zawiya, n. 1836–
14. zawn, n. 1865–
15. zayat, n. 1823–
16. zayde, n. 1946–
17. zazen, n. 1727–
18. zazzy, adj. 1961–
19. Z band, n. 1950–
20. ZBB, n. 1976–
21. Z-bed, n. 1973–

## Etymology

### Summary

A variant or alteration of another lexical item.
Etymon: English how's that.
Representing a pronunciation of how's that (see how adv., int.1, & n.3 Phrases P.5b).

## Meaning & use

colloquial.

1. 1934–
   The cricket appeal ‘How's that?’ (see how adv., int.1, & n.3 Phrases P.5b).
   1. 1934

      > Not a bad record..for a game that consists chiefly of standing about..and shouting ‘Zat?’ at intervals.

      Humorist 27 January 38/3
   2. 1966

      > Outside the window a sharp yelp of ‘Zat?’ sounded.

      M. Woodhouse, Tree Frog xxiii. 167
   cricket colloquial and slang
   1. appeal 1844–
      spec. in Cricket. A call made to an umpire, by any player, for a decision on any point arising during a match, esp. whether a batter is ‘out’ or not.
   2. zat 1934–
      The cricket appeal ‘How's that?’ (see how, adv. & int.¹ & n.³ phrases P.5b).
   3. howzat 1973–
      An utterance of ‘howzat’.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zat/

####

##### 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

zat typically occurs about 0.1 times per million words in modern written English.

zat 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 zat, n., 1930–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1930 | 0.11
1940 | 0.11
1950 | 0.11
1960 | 0.13
1970 | 0.11
1980 | 0.12
1990 | 0.12
2000 | 0.11
2010 | 0.089

zat, n. was first published in 1986; not fully revised.

zat, n. was last modified in July 2023.