zythum, n.

zythum
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zythum_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 2007

# zythumnoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zythum mean?

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

### How common is the noun zythum?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1790 | 0.011
1800 | 0.01
1810 | 0.0095
1820 | 0.0087
1830 | 0.0037
1840 | 0.0034
1850 | 0.0031
1860 | 0.003
1870 | 0.0022
1880 | 0.0014
1890 | 0.0008
1900 | 0.0009
1910 | 0.0008
1920 | 0.0006
1930 | 0.0005
1940 | 0.0006
1950 | 0.0006
1960 | 0.0006
1970 | 0.0004
1980 | 0.0004
1990 | 0.0004
2000 | 0.0004
2010 | 0.0003

### How is the noun zythum pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzʌɪθəm/
ZIGH-thuhm

#### U.S. English

/ˈzaɪθəm/
ZIGH-thuhm

### Where does the noun zythum come from?

Earliest known use

early 1600s

The earliest known use of the noun zythum is in the early 1600s.

OED's earliest evidence for zythum is from 1608, in the writing of Edward Topsell, Church of England clergyman and author.

zythum is a borrowing from Latin.

Etymons: Latin zȳthum.

### Nearby entries

1. zymosimeter, n. 1704–
2. zymosis, n. 1842–
3. zymotechnic, adj. 1896–
4. zymotechnical, adj. 1900–
5. zymotechnologist, n. 1896–
6. zymotechny, n. 1860–
7. zymotic, adj. & n. 1842–
8. zymotoxic, adj. 1902–
9. zymurgy, n. 1868–
10. Zyrian, n. & adj. 1886–
11. zythum, n.1608–
12. Zyzzyva, n. 1922–
13. 0800 number, n. 1988–
14. 0898 number, n. 1988–
15. 101, adj. 1929–
16. 1471, n. 1994–
17. 17-hydroxycorticosteroid, n. 1951–
18. 1984, n. 1951–
19. 1984-ish, adj. 1959–
20. 1992, n. 1988–
21. 24-7, adv. 1985–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Latin.
Etymon: Latin zȳthum.
< classical Latin zȳthum < Hellenistic Greek ζῦθος, of unknown origin.

## Meaning & use

1. 1608–
   In ancient Egypt: a kind of malt beer.
   Much of the word's continuing use is due to its status as the last word listed in several dictionaries (cf. quots. 1854, 1985).
   1. 1608

      > For the better auoydance & purging out of the digested venome..giue the party Garlicke beaten with Zythum, vntill he vomit.

      E. Topsell, Historie of Serpents 62
   2. 1658

      > In Hiberia toward the west and in Britany; whence Pliny, of Corn drink is made: Beer in Egypt, called Zythum, in Spain Caelia and Ceria, Beer in France and other Provinces.

      translation of G. della Porta, Natural Magick iv.xxi.149
   3. 1733

      > This Kind of Drink will keep longer than the Zythum of the Ancients, which being made of nothing but Wheat boil'd in Water, soon turn'd soure, because they put no Hops into it.

      Art of Nursing (ed. 2) xii. 35
   4. 1791

      > The ancients had their Zythum, or drink made from Barley; but it was reckoned very unwholesome.

      C. Dunster in J. Philips, Cider (new edition) i. 58
   5. 1854

      > Zythum, a beverage: a liquor made from malt and wheat.

      Webster's American Dictionary English Language 1281/3
   6. 1868

      > What will we drink? Median, or, rather, Babylonian beer, or Egyptian zythum, or domestic cider?

      Ladies' Repository November 340
   7. 1936

      > An inebriating beverage named Zythum, evidently a beer of some kind, known to be made from barley, is also mentioned by Columella.

      Science Monthly April 364
   8. 1985

      > You want to know the last time the Guardian..mentioned anything from aardvarks to zythum..then just a couple of seconds there it is: up on your screen.

      Guardian (Nexis) 18 July
   9. 2001

      > For the thousands of years that the Egyptians were building pyramids they were brewing zythum to quench their thirsts, to satisfy their gods, nourish their appetites and to help them relax.

      Journal (Newcastle) (Nexis) 8 June 28
   beer ancient Egyptian history
   1. spruce beer c1500–1690
      Beer from Prussia. Obsolete.
   2. March beer 1535–1825
      A strong beer with good keeping qualities, brewed in the spring.
   3. Lubecks beer 1608–39
      A strong beer brewed at Lubeck.
   4. zythum 1608–
      In ancient Egypt: a kind of malt beer.
   5. ship-beer 1615–
      A type of weak beer made to be carried and consumed on long journeys by ship.
   6. household beer 1616–
      Beer used or consumed in a household; spec. beer of ordinary quality suitable for everyday use.
   7. bottle 1622–
      attributive with the sense ‘stored, sold, or brewed in a bottle’, as bottle beer, bottle cider, etc. Cf. bottled, adj. 3.
   8. mum c1623–
      A kind of beer brewed from wheat malt and flavoured with aromatic herbs, originally made at Brunswick (Braunschweig) in Germany.
   9. old beer 1626–
      a. Beer that is old or stale; b. = old ale, n.
   10. six 1631–1898
       Six-shilling beer. In later use plural. Also old six (see quot. 1890).
   11. bitter beer 1633–
       Beer that is strongly flavoured with hops and has a bitter taste (cf. bitter, adj. B.4a); also figurative.
   12. four 1633–
       Short for. Four-shilling beer (see quot).
   13. maize beer 1663–
   14. mum beer 1667–
   15. vinegar beer 1677
       ? beer employed for conversion into vinegar.
   16. wrest-beer 1689
       (See quot. 1689)
   17. nog 1693–
       English regional (East Anglian). A strong variety of beer, brewed esp. in Norfolk.
   18. October 1705–
       A kind of strong ale traditionally brewed in October. Now chiefly historical.
   19. October beer 1707–
       = October, n. 2.
   20. butt beer 1730–71
       Beer kept in a butt, as opposed to a hogshead or other cask.
   21. starting beer 1735–
       (Apparently) a kind of weak or medium-strength beer.
   22. butt 1743–
       A type of beer usually identified as a type of porter. Frequently in entire butt (see entire, adj. A.I.2b). Now historical.
   23. peterman 1767–1815
       A strong variety of wheat beer, formerly brewed at Louvain. Obsolete.
   24. seamen's beer 1795
       See quot. 1795.
   25. chang 1800–
       A Tibetan beer typically made from barley, rice, or millet.
   26. treacle beer 1806–
       A light ale or beer brewed from treacle and water.
   27. stock beer 1826–
       Beer that is stored for ripening before being drunk.
   28. Iceland beer 1828
       A fermented liquor made from the sea sandwort, Honckenya (formerly Arenaria) peploides (family Caryophyllaceae), a succulent perennial plant of…
   29. East India pale ale 1835–
       = India pale ale n. at India, n. I.4.
   30. India pale ale 1837–
       A pale amber-coloured beer, with a higher than average alcohol and hop content, originally to help preserve the beer when exported to British…
   31. faro 1847–
       A kind of beer made chiefly at Brussels and in its neighbourhood. Cf. Pharaoh, n. 2.
   32. she-oak 1848–
       slang. Beer (originally, beer brewed in Australia). Now rare.
   33. Bass 1849–
       Bass's ale or beer, the ‘India Pale Ale’ or ‘Bitter Beer’ manufactured by Messrs. Bass & Co. of Burton-on-Trent. Also with a and plural, a…
   34. bitter 1854–
       Chiefly British (originally colloquial). Beer that is strongly flavoured with hops and has a bitter taste; a drink of this. Cf. bitter ale, n., bitte…
   35. bock 1856–
       In full bock beer. A strong dark-coloured variety of German beer. Also, a glass of this or any other beer.
   36. treble X 1856–
       A brand or strength of beer. See also in treble, adj. A.2.
   37. cocktail 1857
       British School slang. A type of beer, perhaps fresh, foaming beer (cf. sense A.3). Obsolete. rare.
   38. Burton 1861–
       Used attributively and absol. to designate a type of ale (frequently in Burton ale): (a) = Bass, n.⁶; (b) (see quot. 1953).
   39. nettle beer 1864–
   40. honey beer 1867–
       a. South African a drink similar to mead, made of honey fermented by the addition of leaven and (occasionally) the larvae of bees; b. beer made or…
   41. pivo 1873–
       In Russia and some Eastern European countries: beer made from hops and barley malt; a glass of this.
   42. Lambic 1889–
       A strong beer brewed in Belgium.
   43. steam beer 1898–
       A Californian effervescent beer.
   44. barley-beer 1901–
   45. gueuze 1926–
       A type of sour, fizzy, strong Belgian beer made by blending new and aged Lambic beers before a secondary fermentation.
   46. Kriek 1936–
       A style of Belgian beer with a distinctive sour cherry flavour, traditionally made by slowly fermenting lambic beer with morello cherries. Also more…
   47. best 1938–
       Originally and chiefly British = best bitter, n.
   48. rough 1946–
       (A type of) sharp, acid, or harsh alcoholic drink, as draught bitter beer, rough wine, or (now esp.) rough cider.
   49. keg 1949–
       In full keg ale, keg beer, keg bitter. Ale, beer, etc., from a keg (see quot. 1972).
   50. IPA 1953–
       = India pale ale n. at India, n. I.4.
   51. busaa 1967–
       A strong home-brewed traditional Kenyan beer made from fermented millet, maize, or sorghum flour.
   52. mbege 1972–
       A traditional home-brewed beer of the Chagga people of Tanzania, made from fermented bananas and finger millet flour.
   53. craft brew 1985–
       A beer made in a traditional or non-mechanized way; = craft beer, n.
   54. microbrew 1985–
       Beer produced in a microbrewery; a particular variety of this, a microbeer.
   55. craft beer 1986–
       A beer made in a traditional or non-mechanized way, esp. by an individual or a small brewery.
   56. microbeer 1986–
       Beer produced in small quantities, usually for distribution locally or to beer connoisseurs; a particular variety of this. Cf. microbrewery, n.
   57. yeast-beer
       New beer with which a small quantity of fermenting wort has been mixed to make it ‘work’.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzʌɪθəm/
ZIGH-thuhm

### U.S. English

/ˈzaɪθəm/
ZIGH-thuhm

####

##### 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

## Frequency

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

zythum is in frequency band 1, which contains words occurring fewer than 0.001 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 zythum, n., 1790–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1790 | 0.011
1800 | 0.01
1810 | 0.0095
1820 | 0.0087
1830 | 0.0037
1840 | 0.0034
1850 | 0.0031
1860 | 0.003
1870 | 0.0022
1880 | 0.0014
1890 | 0.0008
1900 | 0.0009
1910 | 0.0008
1920 | 0.0006
1930 | 0.0005
1940 | 0.0006
1950 | 0.0006
1960 | 0.0006
1970 | 0.0004
1980 | 0.0004
1990 | 0.0004
2000 | 0.0004
2010 | 0.0003

zythum, n. was first published in June 2007.

zythum, n. was last modified in July 2023.