zeugmatic, adj.

zeugmatic
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zeugmatic_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# zeugmaticadjective

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zeugmatic mean?

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

### How common is the adjective zeugmatic?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1860 | 0.0001
1870 | 0.0001
1880 | 0.0003
1890 | 0.0003
1900 | 0.0002
1910 | 0.0002
1920 | 0.0003
1930 | 0.0005
1940 | 0.0007
1950 | 0.0008
1960 | 0.0011
1970 | 0.0013
1980 | 0.0016
1990 | 0.0018
2000 | 0.0019
2010 | 0.0019

### How is the adjective zeugmatic pronounced?

#### British English

/z(j)uːɡˈmatɪk/
zyoog-MAT-ik

#### U.S. English

/zuɡˈmædɪk/
zoog-MAD-ik

### Where does the adjective zeugmatic come from?

Earliest known use

1850s

The earliest known use of the adjective zeugmatic is in the 1850s.

OED's earliest evidence for zeugmatic is from 1851.

zeugmatic is a borrowing from Greek, combined with an English element; originally modelled on a German lexical item.

Etymons: Greek ζευγματ-, ζεῦγμα, ‑ic suffix.

### Nearby entries

1. Zetetical Society, n. 1881–
2. zetetics, n. 1843–
3. Zetland, n. 1577–
4. Zetlander, n. 1614–
5. Zetlandic, adj. 1701–
6. zetta-, comb. form
7. Zeuglodon, n. 1839–
8. zeuglodont, n. & adj. 1850–
9. zeuglodontoid, adj. & n. 1891
10. zeugma, n. c1450–
11. zeugmatic, adj.1851–
12. zeugmatical, adj. 1610–
13. zeugmatically, adv. 1616–
14. zeugmatogram, n. 1973–
15. zeugmatographic, adj. 1973–
16. zeugmatography, n. 1973–
17. zeunerite, n. 1873–
18. Zeus, n.¹ 1587–
19. Zeus, n.² 1601–
20. Zeus-like, adj. & adv. 1850–
21. Zeuxian, adj. 1635–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Greek, combined with an English element; originally modelled on a German lexical item.
Etymons: Greek ζευγματ-, ζεῦγμα, ‑ic suffix.
< ancient Greek ζευγματ-, ζεῦγμα zeugma n. + ‑ic suffix, originally after German zeugmatisch (1834 in the passage translated in quot. 1851).

Compare earlier zeugmatical adj.…
< ancient Greek ζευγματ-, ζεῦγμα zeugma n. + ‑ic suffix, originally after German zeugmatisch (1834 in the passage translated in quot. 1851).

Compare earlier zeugmatical adj.

### Notes

Compare post-classical Latin zeugmaticus (1575 or earlier; 13th cent. as zeumiticus in an isolated attestation in a British source), Hellenistic Greek ζευγματικόν lock-toll (attested in papyri).

## Meaning & use

Grammar and Rhetoric.

1. 1851–
   Characterized by or involving zeugma. Cf. zeugmatical adj.
   1. 1851

      > ‘And yet,’ continues he, ‘it cannot be called a Zeugmatic connection [German zeugmatische Verbindung].’

      translation of G. C. A. von Harless in translation of H. Olshausen, Biblical Comm. Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, & Thessalonians (Eph. i. 10) 142
   2. 1857

      > A zeugmatic construction of the accus. with both verbs.

      C. J. Ellicott, Comm. Coloss. ii. 5
   3. 1910

      > The verb must be understood to be used in a somewhat zeugmatic way.

      Classical Philology vol. 10 79
   4. 1966

      > If the substantive happens to be a quasi-adverbial time-word..the construction is anomalous. In such expressions the verb is zeugmatic.

      Ériu vol. 20 210
   5. 2007

      > The front page—..using that lovely zeugmatic US headline style that we don't have—announced: ‘Search on for bodies, answers.’

      Daily Telegraph (Nexis) 6 August 18
   rhetoric grammar
   1. zeugmatical 1610–
      Characterized by or involving zeugma. Cf. zeugmatic, adj.
   2. sylleptical 1807–
   3. zeugmatic 1851–
      Characterized by or involving zeugma. Cf. zeugmatical, adj.
   4. sylleptic 1865–
      Pertaining to, of the nature of, or involving syllepsis.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/z(j)uːɡˈmatɪk/
zyoog-MAT-ik

### U.S. English

/zuɡˈmædɪk/
zoog-MAD-ik

####

##### 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

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

zeugmatic 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 zeugmatic, adj., 1860–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1860 | 0.0001
1870 | 0.0001
1880 | 0.0003
1890 | 0.0003
1900 | 0.0002
1910 | 0.0002
1920 | 0.0003
1930 | 0.0005
1940 | 0.0007
1950 | 0.0008
1960 | 0.0011
1970 | 0.0013
1980 | 0.0016
1990 | 0.0018
2000 | 0.0019
2010 | 0.0019

Originally published as part of the entry for zeugma, n.

zeugmatic, adj. was revised in June 2018.

zeugmatic, adj. was last modified in July 2023.