zacnoun
Factsheet
What does the noun zac mean?
There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun zac. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.
This word is used in Australian English.
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 zac?
| 1890 | 0.0096 |
| 1900 | 0.01 |
| 1910 | 0.0097 |
| 1920 | 0.0097 |
| 1930 | 0.009 |
| 1940 | 0.0088 |
| 1950 | 0.0091 |
| 1960 | 0.0087 |
| 1970 | 0.0074 |
| 1980 | 0.0073 |
| 1990 | 0.0069 |
| 2000 | 0.0067 |
| 2010 | 0.0062 |
How is the noun zac pronounced?
British English
U.S. English
Australian English
Where does the noun zac come from?
Earliest known use
1890s
The earliest known use of the noun zac is in the 1890s.
OED's earliest evidence for zac is from 1898, in the Bulletin (Sydney).
zac is of unknown origin.
Nearby entries
- 999, n.1937–
- Z, n.Old English–
- 'Z, adj.
- za, n.1968–
- zaatar, n.1917–
- zabaglione, n.1899–
- zabernism, n.1916–21
- zabernize, v.1914
- zabra, n.1523–
- zabuton, n.1879–
- zac, n.1898–
- 'zackly | 'zactly, adv.1886–
- zad, n.1669–
- Zadokite, n. & adj.1910–
- zadruga, n.1887–
- zaffre | zaffer, n.1662–
- zaftig, adj.1921–
- zafu, n.1965–
- zag, n., adv., & v.1793–
- zagaie | zagaye, n.1590–1698
- Zaghlulist, n. & adj.1921–
Etymology
Summary
Meaning & use
- 1898–A sixpence.
- 1898
6d., a ‘zack’.
Bulletin (Sydney) 1 October 14 - 1924
Zack, sixpence.
Truth (Sydney) 27 April 6 - 1941
‘Only one, then,’ I said. ‘We'll only have one more, so we'll make it a sixpence in.’ ‘Don't worry about the zac,’ said Tom.
Coast to Coast 213 - 1952
Arthur spent the break losing bobs and tanners while the tall Australian reckoned his profits in dieners and zaks.
M. Tripp, Faith is Windsock ii. 29 - 1962
And all you get for it is a zack.
John o' London's 8 March 229/2 - 1966
The zack, now the 5c piece, is in such demand that very often its scarcity makes one wonder if it is gradually going out of circulation.
Telegraph (Brisbane) 13 October 13/2 - 1966
Two taps with an improvised hammer and anvil, a two bob and a zac.
P. Mathers, Trap ii. 31 - 1977
When it comes to unique competitions the people of outback Winton reckon they're the full quid—and you can bet your last zac or traybit on it.
Sunday Sun (Brisbane) 1 May 16
society trade and finance money medium of exchange or currency coins collective English coins [nouns] sixpence- tester1560–A name for the teston, n. of Henry VIII, esp. as debased and depreciated; subsequently a colloquial or slang term for a sixpence.
- half-shilling1561–half-shilling, quarter-shilling, Tudor coins of the value of 6d. and 3d. respectively.
- teston1577–1601A name for the sixpenny piece; = tester, n.³
- mill sixpence1592–1639A silver sixpence of a type made using the mill machinery at the Royal Mint in London between 1561 and 1571.
- crinklepouch1593A sixpence.
- sixpencea1616–Historical. A British silver (subsequently cupro-nickel) coin worth six pennies.
- testrila1616A sixpence.
- piga1640–1916slang (originally cant). A sixpence. Obsolete.
- sice1660–slang. Sixpence.
- Simon1699–1860slang. A sixpence.
- sow's-baby1699–(See quots.).
- kick1725–A sixpence.
- cripple1785–1885slang. A sixpence. Obsolete.
- grunter1785–slang. A shilling (? obsolete) or a sixpence.
- tilbury1796–1819A sixpenny piece; sixpence. slang. Obsolete.
- tizzy1804–A sixpenny-piece. Also in combinations, as tizzy-snatcher n. Nautical slang an assistant paymaster.
- tanner1811–A sixpence. Also attributive.
- bender1836–slang. A sixpence. (? Because it bends easily.)
- lord of the manor1839–Rhyming slang for a tanner (tanner, n.²). Occasionally in the contracted form lord. Now historical and rare.
- snid1839A sixpence.
- sprat1839–slang. British, Australian, and New Zealand. A small coin of little value; spec. a sixpence. Now rare.
- fiddler1846–slang. A sixpence.
- Amounting to, having the value of, sixpence.
- zac1898–A sixpence.
- sprasey1905–A sixpence.
Pronunciation
British English
U.S. English
Australian English
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
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
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.
Consonants
- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye*
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- 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 as in British and US English.
Vowels
- iːfleece
- ihappy
- ɪkit
- edress
- ætrap
- ʌːpalm, bath, start
- ʌstrut
- ɔlot, cloth
- oːthought, north, force, sure
- ʊfoot
- ʉːgoose
- ɜːnurse
- æeface
- ɑepride
- əletter
- ɪənear
- eːsquare
- ʉːəcure
- æɔmouth
- əʉgoat
- oɪvoice
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/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
Forms
Variant forms
Also zack, zak.Frequency
zac typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.
zac 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 of zac, 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 | 0.0096 |
| 1900 | 0.01 |
| 1910 | 0.0097 |
| 1920 | 0.0097 |
| 1930 | 0.009 |
| 1940 | 0.0088 |
| 1950 | 0.0091 |
| 1960 | 0.0087 |
| 1970 | 0.0074 |
| 1980 | 0.0073 |
| 1990 | 0.0069 |
| 2000 | 0.0067 |
| 2010 | 0.0062 |
Frequency of zac, n., 2017–2024
* Occurrences per million words in written English
Modern frequency series are derived from a corpus of 20 billion words, covering the period from 2017 to the present. The corpus is mainly compiled from online news sources, and covers all major varieties of World English.
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 corpus.
| Period | Frequency per million words |
|---|---|
| 2017 | 0.0091 |
| 2018 | 0.01 |
| 2019 | 0.013 |
| 2020 | 0.015 |
| 2021 | 0.026 |
| 2022 | 0.032 |
| 2023 | 0.036 |
| 2024 | 0.04 |