zinciferous, adj.

zinciferous
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zinciferous_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1921; not fully revised

# zinciferousadjective

## Earlier version

- zinciferous, a. in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zinciferous mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the adjective zinciferous. 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 adjective zinciferous?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1810 | 0.0013
1820 | 0.0012
1830 | 0.0048
1840 | 0.0054
1850 | 0.0069
1860 | 0.009
1870 | 0.012
1880 | 0.016
1890 | 0.018
1900 | 0.015
1910 | 0.014
1920 | 0.013
1930 | 0.01
1940 | 0.0072
1950 | 0.0036
1960 | 0.0016
1970 | 0.0012
1980 | 0.0009
1990 | 0.0007
2000 | 0.0006
2010 | 0.0004

### How is the adjective zinciferous pronounced?

#### British English

/zɪŋˈkɪfərəs/

### Where does the adjective zinciferous come from?

Earliest known use

1820s

The earliest known use of the adjective zinciferous is in the 1820s.

OED's earliest evidence for zinciferous is from 1820, in American Journal of Science.

zinciferous is formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: zinc n.

### Nearby entries

1. zinc chloride, n. 1851–
2. zinc chromate, n. 1851–
3. zinc chrome, n. 1892–
4. zinc-dust, n. 1877–
5. zinc finger, n. 1987–
6. zinc-foil, n. 1851–
7. zinc green, n. 1847–
8. zinc-grey | zinc-gray, n. 1881–
9. zincian, adj. 1930–
10. zincic, adj. 1860–
11. zinciferous, adj.1820–
12. zincification, n. 1891–
13. zincify, v. 1801–
14. zinc-iron, n. & adj. 1849–
15. zincite, n. 1854–
16. zinckenite, n. 1835–
17. zinco, n. 1887–
18. zinco-, comb. form
19. zincode, n. 1839–
20. zincograph, n. 1888–
21. zincograph, v. 1865–

## Etymology

< zinc n.: see ‑ferous comb. form.

## Meaning & use

1. 1820–
   Containing or producing zinc.
   1. 1820

      > The black zinciferous mineral, the Franklinite.

      American Journal of Science vol. 2 323
   2. 1828–32

      > Zinkiferous.

      Webster, American Dictionary of English Language
   minerals
   1. zincy 1757–
      Relating to or containing zinc; resembling or reminiscent of zinc.
   2. zinciferous 1820–
      Containing or producing zinc.
   3. zincic 1860–
      Of, pertaining to, or containing zinc. zincic oxide, oxide of zinc, regarded as the source of the compounds called zincates.
   4. zincian 1930–
      Of a mineral: having a (small) proportion of a constituent element replaced by zinc.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zɪŋˈkɪfərəs/

####

##### 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.

## Forms

### Variant forms

Also (in Dicts.) zinckiferous, zinkiferous.

## Frequency

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

zinciferous 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 zinciferous, adj., 1810–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1810 | 0.0013
1820 | 0.0012
1830 | 0.0048
1840 | 0.0054
1850 | 0.0069
1860 | 0.009
1870 | 0.012
1880 | 0.016
1890 | 0.018
1900 | 0.015
1910 | 0.014
1920 | 0.013
1930 | 0.01
1940 | 0.0072
1950 | 0.0036
1960 | 0.0016
1970 | 0.0012
1980 | 0.0009
1990 | 0.0007
2000 | 0.0006
2010 | 0.0004

zinciferous, adj. was first published in 1921; not fully revised.

zinciferous, adj. was last modified in December 2024.