zina, n.

zina
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zina_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 2021

# zinanoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zina mean?

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

### How common is the noun zina?

About 0.04occurrences per million words in modern written English

1810 | 0.0063
1820 | 0.0054
1830 | 0.0049
1840 | 0.0051
1850 | 0.0057
1860 | 0.0041
1870 | 0.005
1880 | 0.0054
1890 | 0.0054
1900 | 0.0061
1910 | 0.0058
1920 | 0.0061
1930 | 0.0066
1940 | 0.008
1950 | 0.01
1960 | 0.016
1970 | 0.025
1980 | 0.034
1990 | 0.038
2000 | 0.044
2010 | 0.051

### How is the noun zina pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈziːnə/
ZEE-nuh

#### U.S. English

/ˈzinə/
ZEE-nuh

### Where does the noun zina come from?

Earliest known use

1810s

The earliest known use of the noun zina is in the 1810s.

OED's earliest evidence for zina is from 1817, in Papers relating to E. India Affairs: Regulations Govts. Bengal, Fort St. George, & Bombay.

zina is of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from Persian. Partly a borrowing from Arabic.

Etymons: Persian zinā', Arabic zinā'.

### Nearby entries

1. zillion, n. & adj. 1920–
2. zillionaire, n. 1926–
3. zillionth, n. & adj. 1940–
4. zimb, n. 1790–
5. Zimba, n. 1625–
6. Zimbabwe, n. 1891–
7. Zimbabwean, adj. & n. 1961–
8. zimbel, n. 1888–
9. zimme, n. 1848–63
10. Zimmer, n. 1951–
11. zina, n.1817–
12. zinc, n. 1651–
13. zinc, v. 1843–
14. zinc-air, adj. 1970–
15. Zincala, n. 1844–91
16. Zincalo, n. 1841–
17. zinc-alum, n. 1851–
18. zinc-amide, n. 1859–
19. zincate, n. 1872–
20. zinc-blende, n. 1842–
21. zinc-bloom, n. 1842–

## Etymology

### Summary

Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from Persian. Partly a borrowing from Arabic.
Etymons: Persian zinā', Arabic zinā'.
< Persian zinā',

and (probably mainly) < its etymon Arabic zinā' (also zinā), unlawful extramarital sexual intercourse, verbal noun of zanā to commit fornication, cognate with Hebrew zānāh.

## Meaning & use

Islam.

1. 1817–
   Any form of sexual intercourse which is prohibited under Islamic law, esp. that between two people who are not legal spouses; adultery, fornication.
   1. 1817

      > The Mahomedan law of evidence, in some cases (especially in those of Zina, including adultery, rape and incest,) is such as to render a legal conviction almost impossible.

      in Papers relating to E. India Affairs: Regulations Govts. Bengal, Fort St. George, & Bombay (1819) xvii. 25 in Parliamentary Papers (H.C. 583) vol. XIII. 347
   2. 1865

      > Such an one committed zina with thee, and this child is the fruit.

      N. B. E. Baillie, Digest Moohummudan Law v. iii. 413
   3. 1939

      > One of the undertakings of the covenant between Mohammad and women of the Islamic community was that they should not commit zina.

      G. H. Stern in M. Amin, Wisdom of Prophet Muhammad (1945) 45
   4. 1984

      > You would like to take me to bed and make zina, would you not?

      G. Jennings, Journeyer (1988) 204
   5. 2017

      > A Muslim is not to long for the things that lead to zina, such as kissing, being alone, and touching.

      S. K. Ali, Saints & Misfits 107
   Islam
   1. eaubruche Old English–1225
      Adultery.
   2. mid-lying a1200
      Adultery.
   3. spousebriche?c1225–1500
      Adultery; = spousebreach, n.¹ Cf. eaubruche, n.¹
   4. spousebreach c1275–
      Adultery; (occasionally also) an adulterous act. Now rare (archaic and literary in later use).
   5. adultery a1325–
      Voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and another who is not his or her spouse, regarded as a violation of the marriage vows and…
   6. whore-play a1325
      Adultery, fornication.
   7. spouse-break 1357–1425
      Adultery; = spousebreach, n.¹
   8. devoutrie 1377–
      For advoutrie, adultery, n.
   9. voutry a1382–1500
      Adultery.
   10. spouse-breaking a1398–
       Adultery; = spousebreach, n.¹
   11. vowtre c1425
       Adultery.
   12. vowtry c1450
       Adultery.
   13. breach of matrimony 1526–69
       to break matrimony: to commit adultery. Similarly breach of matrimony. Obsolete.
   14. wed-breach 1638
       Breach of covenant (Old English), adultery.
   15. mechation 1656
       Adultery.
   16. conjugal infidelity 1700
       Unfaithfulness or disloyalty to a person, e.g. to a sovereign, lord, master, friend, lover; esp., in modern use, to a husband or wife, called more…
   17. zina 1817–
       Any form of sexual intercourse which is prohibited under Islamic law, esp. that between two people who are not legal spouses; adultery, fornication.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈziːnə/
ZEE-nuh

### U.S. English

/ˈzinə/
ZEE-nuh

####

##### 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

## Forms

### Variant forms

1. 1800s–
   zina
2. 1900s–
   zeenah, zinah
3. 2000s–
   zeena

## Frequency

zina typically occurs about 0.04 times per million words in modern written English.

zina 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 zina, n., 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 | 0.0063
1820 | 0.0054
1830 | 0.0049
1840 | 0.0051
1850 | 0.0057
1860 | 0.0041
1870 | 0.005
1880 | 0.0054
1890 | 0.0054
1900 | 0.0061
1910 | 0.0058
1920 | 0.0061
1930 | 0.0066
1940 | 0.008
1950 | 0.01
1960 | 0.016
1970 | 0.025
1980 | 0.034
1990 | 0.038
2000 | 0.044
2010 | 0.051

### Frequency of zina, 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 | 0.016
2018 | 0.014
2019 | 0.012
2020 | 0.0095
2021 | 0.0069
2022 | 0.0048
2023 | 0.0042
2024 | 0.0034

zina, n. was first published in March 2021.

zina, n. was last modified in July 2023.