zawn, n.

zawn
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zawn_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 2008

# zawnnoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zawn mean?

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

This word is used in south-western English regional dialect.

### How common is the noun zawn?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1870 | 0.0002
1880 | 0.0002
1890 | 0.0002
1900 | 0.0002
1910 | 0.0001
1920 | 0.0002
1930 | 0.0003
1940 | 0.0003
1950 | 0.0004
1960 | 0.0006
1970 | 0.0007
1980 | 0.0008
1990 | 0.0009
2000 | 0.0009
2010 | 0.001

### How is the noun zawn pronounced?

#### British English

/zɔːn/
zawn

#### U.S. English

/zɔn/
zawn
/zɑn/
zahn

### Where does the noun zawn come from?

Earliest known use

1860s

The earliest known use of the noun zawn is in the 1860s.

OED's earliest evidence for zawn is from 1865, in the writing of Robert Hunt, chemist and photographer.

zawn is a borrowing from Cornish.

Etymons: Cornish sâwn.

### Nearby entries

1. zarf | zurf, n. 1836–
2. zari, n. 1969–
3. zariba, n. 1849–
4. zariba, v. 1885–
5. zarnich, n. 1612–
6. Zarp, n. 1895–
7. zarzuela, n. 1888–
8. zat, n. 1934–
9. zatch, n. 1950–
10. zawiya, n. 1836–
11. zawn, n.1865–
12. zayat, n. 1823–
13. zayde, n. 1946–
14. zazen, n. 1727–
15. zazzy, adj. 1961–
16. Z band, n. 1950–
17. ZBB, n. 1976–
18. Z-bed, n. 1973–
19. Z-car, n. 1961–
20. Z-day, n. 1925–
21. Z-DNA, n. 1979–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Cornish.
Etymon: Cornish sâwn.
< Cornish sâwn cleft, fissure, ravine, cove (a1709; also as sawan (1790)), cognate with Welsh safn mouth, jaws, palate (c1275), Middle Breton staffn (Breton staoñ palate), probably ultimately < the same…
< Cornish sâwn cleft, fissure, ravine, cove (a1709; also as sawan (1790)), cognate with Welsh safn mouth, jaws, palate (c1275), Middle Breton staffn (Breton staoñ palate), probably ultimately < the same Indo-European base as ancient Greek στόμα mouth (see stoma n.).

## Meaning & use

English regional (Cornwall).

1. 1865–
   A fissure or cave in a coastal cliff.
   1. 1865

      > The blue flames reached the top of the ‘Zawn’.

      R. Hunt, Popular Romances W. Eng 281
   2. 1955

      > A..rock platform commands an impressive view down the serrated length of the ridge on one side and has a..sheer drop down into a zawn on the other.

      M. E. B. Banks, Commando Climber i. 15
   3. 2001

      > Above vertiginous zawns the path past Morvah is overgrown, untrodden for three months, almost indiscernible.

      Guardian (Nexis) 27 June
   English regional (south-western)

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zɔːn/
zawn

### U.S. English

/zɔn/
zawn
/zɑn/
zahn

####

##### 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

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

zawn 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 zawn, n., 1870–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1870 | 0.0002
1880 | 0.0002
1890 | 0.0002
1900 | 0.0002
1910 | 0.0001
1920 | 0.0002
1930 | 0.0003
1940 | 0.0003
1950 | 0.0004
1960 | 0.0006
1970 | 0.0007
1980 | 0.0008
1990 | 0.0009
2000 | 0.0009
2010 | 0.001

zawn, n. was first published in December 2008.

zawn, n. was last modified in March 2024.