Zamak, n.

zamak
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zamak_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 2009

# Zamaknoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun Zamak mean?

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

### How common is the noun Zamak?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1920 | 0.014
1930 | 0.013
1940 | 0.011
1950 | 0.01
1960 | 0.011
1970 | 0.0083
1980 | 0.006
1990 | 0.0038
2000 | 0.0027
2010 | 0.0026

### How is the noun Zamak pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzamak/
ZAM-ak

#### U.S. English

/ˈzæmæk/
ZAM-ak

### Where does the noun Zamak come from?

Earliest known use

1920s

The earliest known use of the noun Zamak is in the 1920s.

OED's earliest evidence for Zamak is from 1926, in Official Gazette.

Zamak is formed within English, by compounding.

Etymons: zinc n., aluminium n., magnesium n., English ‑ak.

### Nearby entries

1. Zairean, n. & adj. 1972–
2. Zairese, adj. & n. 1974–
3. Zairois, n. & adj. 1973–
4. zaitech, n. 1986–
5. zakat, n. 1668–
6. Zakka Khel, n. 1860–
7. zakuska, n. 1885–
8. zalambdodont, adj. 1885–
9. zalcitabine, n. 1991–
10. zamacueca, n. 1855–
11. Zamak, n.1926–
12. zamang, n. 1819–
13. zamarra, n. 1841–
14. zama zama, n. 2006–
15. Zamazim, n. a1400–
16. Zambian, adj. & n. 1959–
17. Zambianization, n. 1964–
18. Zambianize, v. 1964–
19. zambo, n. 1819–
20. Zamboni, n. 1965–
21. zambra, n. 1672–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by compounding.
Etymons: zinc n., aluminium n., magnesium n., English ‑ak.
< z- (in zinc n.) + a- (in aluminium n.) + m- (in magnesium n.) + ‑ak, apparently arbitrary ending (perhaps compare Kodak n.).

Compare later Mazak n.…
< z- (in zinc n.) + a- (in aluminium n.) + m- (in magnesium n.) + ‑ak, apparently arbitrary ending (perhaps compare Kodak n.).

Compare later Mazak n.

### Notes

Originally a brand name.

## Meaning & use

Originally U.S.

1. 1926–
   Any of a series of alloys of high-purity zinc with aluminium and copper, typically used in die-casting. Cf. Mazak n.
   1. 1926

      > The New Jersey Zinc Company... Zamak... Zinc-base alloy.

      Official Gazette (U.S. Patent Office) 24 August 756/1
   2. 1930

      > The alloy preferably employed is a zinc base alloy, known in the trade as ‘Zamak’.

      U.S. Patent 1,777,320 4/1
   3. 1951

      > Jet-power professional nozzle... Precision made from light-weight, rust-proof Zamac alloy.

      Popular Mechanics June 38/1 (advertisement)
   4. 1974

      > Zinc prices lifted... The new prices are 40 cents per 1lb for prime western zinc..and 44.5 cents for Zamak No 3 alloy.

      Times 12 June 24/7
   5. 2005

      > Zamak 3's combination of low elasticity and high density inhibits sound vibration and transmission in motor housing used in a vacuum cleaner.

      Appliance Design (Nexis) 1 March 30
   metal industry U.S. English
   1. yellow metal a1535–
      a. (Often with the) gold; b. any of various yellow-coloured non-ferrous alloys; spec. an alloy of copper and zinc used for sheathing the hulls of…
   2. white brass 1538–
      Brass of a silvery colour; (in later use) spec. brass containing a large proportion of zinc.
   3. tombac 1606–
      Any of various gold-coloured copper alloys typically containing from 82 to 99 per cent copper, the rest usually being made up largely or entirely of…
   4. Prince's metal 1682–
      An alloy, resembling brass, consisting of about three parts copper and one part zinc, used esp. for cheap jewellery. Cf. Prince Rupert's metal n. at…
   5. Bath-metal 1714–
      An alloy, consisting of 3 or 4 oz. of zinc to one pound of copper (Ure).
   6. pinchbeck 1734–
      An alloy containing a high proportion of copper and a low proportion of zinc which is used chiefly in making cheap jewellery, on account of its…
   7. button metal 1786–1921
      Any of various alloys (typically containing copper and zinc) used in the manufacture of buttons.
   8. Prince Rupert's metal 1789–1877
      = Prince's metal, n. Obsolete.
   9. platina 1790–
      An alloy of copper and zinc formerly used for making buttons.
   10. oroide 1869–
       An alloy of copper and zinc having the colour of gold. Cf. oreide, n.
   11. Zamak 1926–
       Any of a series of alloys of high-purity zinc with aluminium and copper, typically used in die-casting. Cf. Mazak, n.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzamak/
ZAM-ak

### U.S. English

/ˈzæmæk/
ZAM-ak

####

##### 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.

1. 1900s–
   zamac, zamak

#### 2. Also with lower-case initial.

## Frequency

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

Zamak 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 Zamak, n., 1920–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1920 | 0.014
1930 | 0.013
1940 | 0.011
1950 | 0.01
1960 | 0.011
1970 | 0.0083
1980 | 0.006
1990 | 0.0038
2000 | 0.0027
2010 | 0.0026

Zamak, n. was first published in December 2009.

Zamak, n. was last modified in July 2023.