Zoque, n.

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

# Zoquenoun (& adjective)

## Earlier version

- Zoque, n. (and a.) in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun Zoque mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun Zoque. 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 Zoque?

About 0.03occurrences per million words in modern written English

1890 | 0.016
1900 | 0.015
1910 | 0.021
1920 | 0.022
1930 | 0.026
1940 | 0.028
1950 | 0.029
1960 | 0.031
1970 | 0.034
1980 | 0.031
1990 | 0.032
2000 | 0.03
2010 | 0.031

### How is the noun Zoque pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈsəʊkeɪ/

### Where does the noun Zoque come from?

Earliest known use

1890s

The earliest known use of the noun Zoque is in the 1890s.

OED's earliest evidence for Zoque is from 1891, in the writing of Daniel Brinton.

Zoque is a borrowing from Spanish.

### Nearby entries

1. zooxanthella, n. 1882–
2. zooxanthellate, adj. & n. 1981–
3. zooxanthin, n. 1868–
4. zoozygosphere, n. 1880–
5. zope, n. 1880–
6. zophoric, adj. 1728–
7. zophorus | zoophorus, n. 1563–
8. zopilote, n. 1787–
9. zopissa, n. 1601–
10. zoppa, adj. 1740–
11. Zoque, n.1891–
12. Zoque–Mixe, adj. & n. 1893–
13. Zorb, n. 1996–
14. zorbing, n. 1996–
15. zorgite, n. 1852–
16. zori, n.?1823–
17. zoril, n. 1774–
18. Zoroastrian, adj. & n. 1597–
19. Zoroastrianism, n. 1832–
20. Zoroastrianize, v. 1891–
21. Zoroastric, adj. a1739–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Spanish.
< Spanish, of uncertain origin.

## Meaning & use

1. 1891–
   Any of a group of Central American Indigenous languages of the Mixe-Zoquean family; this group of languages collectively. Also attributive or as adj.
   1. 1891

      > Zoque linguistic stock.

      D. G. Brinton, American Race iii. vi. 144 (heading)
   2. 1911

      > Zoque.

      C. Thomas & J. R. Swanton, Indian Languages of Mexico & Central America (U.S. Bureau of Amer. Ethnol. Bull. No. 44) 60 (heading)
   3. 1940

      > The territory in which the Zoque language was spoken has scarcely been changed on any map since Thomas.

      F. Johnson in Maya & their Neighbors vi. 109
   4. 1953

      > This is most strikingly illustrated in Zoque, where the impermissibility of many sequences of consonants leads to a non-phonemic transposition of phoneme-order in the event of suffixation.

      C. E. Bazell, Linguistic Form 22
   5. 1964

      > As in Zoque, spoken in Mexico, the Biblical expression ‘Perfect love casts out fear’ becomes ‘we do not fear when we truly love’.

      E. A. Nida, Toward Science of Translating vi. 134
   6. 1972

      > Otomi nasal vowels, Mixteco,..and Zoque.

      Language vol. 48 847
   1. Creek 1725–
      Of or pertaining to the people or their language (see sense A.1).
   2. Choctaw 1796–
      The language of this people. Also attributive.
   3. Tsimshian 1836–
      Of or pertaining to this people or their language.
   4. Muskogee 1868–
      Of or relating to the Muskogees (sense A.1a) or their language (sense A.2).
   5. Tzeltal 1868–
      (A member of) an Indigenous people inhabiting parts of southern Mexico; the Mayan language of this people. Also attributive or as adj.
   6. Yuki 1875–
      General attributive or as adj.
   7. Klamath 1881–
      Of or pertaining to this people.
   8. Takelma 1882–
      Of or relating to the Takelma or their language; designating the Takelma or their language.
   9. Zoque 1891–
      Any of a group of Central American Indigenous languages of the Mixe-Zoquean family; this group of languages collectively. Also attributive or as adj.
   10. Zoque–Mixe 1893–
       = Mixe–Zoque, adj.
   11. Modoc 1907–
       Of, relating to, or designating the Modoc.
   12. Yawelmani 1907–
       General attributive or as adj.
   13. Sahaptin 1921–
       Of or pertaining to any of these peoples or their language.
   14. Totonacan 1933–
       Of or pertaining to the family of languages that comprises Totonac and Tepehua.
   15. Tzotzil 1939–
       (A member of) an Indigenous people inhabiting parts of southern Mexico; the Mayan language of this people. Also attributive or as adj.
   16. Molale 1966–
       Of or relating to the Molale or their language.
   17. Quichean 1968–
       Of or relating to Quiché or the Mayan language subgroup to which it belongs.
   18. Mixean 1977–
       Of or relating to the Mixe of southern Mexico; spec. belonging to or designating a group of related languages which together form a branch of the…
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. Mixe 1877–
      Any of a group of related languages spoken by this people, which together form the Mixean branch of the Mixe–Zoque family; this group of languages.
   2. Zoque 1891–
      Any of a group of Central American Indigenous languages of the Mixe-Zoquean family; this group of languages collectively. Also attributive or as adj.
   3. Totonac 1908–
      An Indigenous people of east central Mexico; a member of this people. Also, their language. Also attributive.
   4. Mixean 1977–
      The Mixean group of languages; a language belonging to the Mixean group.
   5. Mixe–Zoque 1977–
      The Mixe–Zoque family of languages (see sense B).
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈsəʊkeɪ/

####

##### 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

Zoque typically occurs about 0.03 times per million words in modern written English.

Zoque 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 Zoque, n., 1890–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1890 | 0.016
1900 | 0.015
1910 | 0.021
1920 | 0.022
1930 | 0.026
1940 | 0.028
1950 | 0.029
1960 | 0.031
1970 | 0.034
1980 | 0.031
1990 | 0.032
2000 | 0.03
2010 | 0.031

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. Zoque–Mixe, adj. & n. 1893–
   = Mixe–Zoque, adj.

1. Mixe–Zoquean, adj. & n. 1940–
   The Mixe–Zoque language family. Cf. Mixe–Zoque, n. A.2.

1. Mixe–Zoque, n. & adj. 1957–
   With plural agreement: the Mixe and Zoque peoples…

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

Zoque, n. was last modified in December 2024.