zebra plant, n.

zebra-plant
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zebra-plant_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# zebra plantnoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zebra plant mean?

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

### How common is the noun zebra plant?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1920 | 0.0001
1930 | 0.0002
1940 | 0.0006
1950 | 0.0008
1960 | 0.0011
1970 | 0.0012
1980 | 0.0013
1990 | 0.0014
2000 | 0.0016
2010 | 0.0014

### Where does the noun zebra plant come from?

Earliest known use

1820s

The earliest known use of the noun zebra plant is in the 1820s.

OED's earliest evidence for zebra plant is from 1826, in the writing of G. Miller.

### Nearby entries

1. zebra finch, n. 1868–
2. zebrafish, n. 1771–
3. zebraic, adj. 1858–
4. zebra marking, n. 1854–
5. zebra moray, n. 1933–
6. zebra mule, n. 1841–
7. zebra mussel, n. 1866–
8. zebrano, n. 1908–
9. zebra opossum, n. 1808–
10. zebra parakeet, n. 1856–
11. zebra plant, n.1826–
12. zebra poison, n. 1871–74
13. zebra print, n. & adj. 1932–
14. zebra rhomb, n. 1770–1844
15. zebra rock, n. 1895–
16. zebra rush, n. 1882–
17. zebra shark, n. 1804–
18. zebra skin, n. 1774–
19. zebra spider, n. 1806–
20. zebra suit, n. 1853–
21. zebra swallowtail, n. 1855–

## Meaning & use

1. 1826–
   Any of several plants which have conspicuously striped or veined foliage and are typically cultivated as ornamentals, esp. Calathea zebrina (family Marantaceae) and Aphelandra squarrosa (family Acanthaceae).
   1. 1826

      > Together with the Proteus and the Zebra plants.

      G. Miller, Popular Philosophy vol. II. xxviii. 85
   2. 1866

      > Zebra-plant. Calathea zebrina.

      J. Lindley & T. Moore, Treasury of Botany vol. II. 1248/1
   3. 1974

      > Aphelandra (Zebra Plant) This is another popular house plant, grown usually in the form of Aphelandra squarrosa louisae, with large ivory-veined leaves.

      S. Clapham, Greenhouse Book xviiii. 185
   4. 2016

      > Zebra plants need adequate humidity but not a lot of direct sunlight.

      Hamilton Spectator (Ontario, Canada) (Nexis) 28 January g8
   plants
   1. masterwort 1523–
      A plant, Peucedanum ostruthium (family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae)), formerly highly regarded on account of the sudorific, diuretic, and other medicinal…
   2. water mango 1700
      A West Indian plant or tree (not identified).
   3. hogweed 1707–
      Any of several plants native to the Caribbean; spec. (a) a plant of the genus Boerhavia (family Nyctaginaceae), formerly used as food for pigs; †(b)…
   4. black root 1709–
      a. Any of various North American medicinal plants with dark-coloured roots; esp. a kind of speedwell, Veronicastrum virginicum, native to moist…
   5. many-seed 1750–
      A tropical shrubby herb with yellow flowers, Ludwigia octovalvis, of the family Onagraceae.
   6. Martynia 1753–
      A genus of the family Pedaliaceae, consisting of sticky-haired plants, native to warm and tropical parts of America, with two-lipped flowers and…
   7. Maranta 1754–
      A genus of tropical American monocotyledonous plants (family Marantaceae); (also maranta) a plant of this genus, esp. (a) arrowroot, M. arundinacea…
   8. hog meat 1756–
      Chiefly Jamaican. Any of various tropical climbing or creeping plants formerly gathered as animal fodder; esp. (a) †the pelican flower, Aristolochia g…
   9. iron 1756
      = iron shrub, n. Obsolete. rare.
   10. Evolvulus 1764–
       A genus of herbaceous plants and shrubs of the family Convolvulaceae, containing about 100 species mostly native to tropical America and typically…
   11. zebra plant 1826–
       Any of several plants which have conspicuously striped or veined foliage and are typically cultivated as ornamentals, esp. Calathea zebrina (family M…
   12. turkey-flower 1843–
       = turkey-blossom, n.
   13. vriesia 1843–
       A perennial herbaceous plant of the genus Vriesia (family Bromeliaceæ), native to South or Central America and bearing rosettes of linear leaves…
   14. Spanish needles 1846–
       The American plant Bidens bipinnata or its prickly fruit.
   15. turkey-blossom 1849–
       West Indian name of Tribulus cistoides.
   16. horse poison 1851–
       A West Indian plant, Isotoma longiflora.
   17. St Martin's herb 1860–
       = herb of St. Martin, n.
   18. goatweed 1864–
       A flowering plant, Scoparia dulcis (family Plantaginaceae), native to tropical parts of the Americas, used as a medicinal herb, having erect…
   19. wake-robin 1864–
       In the West Indies and tropical America, applied to certain araceous plants of either of the genera Anthurium (tail-flower) and Philodendron.
   20. frog-bit 1866–
       The European aquatic plant Hydrocharis morsus-ranae (family Hydrocharitaceae), having kidney-shaped leaves and white and green flowers, now widely…
   21. herb of St. Martin 1866–
       Sauvagesia erecta, a native of tropical America and the West Indies.
   22. pipi 1866–79
       More fully pipi pod. The astringent pod of the tropical American plant Caesalpinia paipai (family Caesalpiniaceae (Leguminosae)), sometimes used for…
   23. goatweed 1869–
       An annual herbaceous plant with a goat-like scent, Ageratum conyzoides (family Asteraceae), native to tropical America, having erect, hairy stems…
   24. cigar-plant 1961–
       A Mexican plant of the genus Cuphea, having a scarlet tubular corolla tipped with black and white (Cent. Dict. 1889).
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

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

zebra plant 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 zebra plant, n., 1920–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1920 | 0.0001
1930 | 0.0002
1940 | 0.0006
1950 | 0.0008
1960 | 0.0011
1970 | 0.0012
1980 | 0.0013
1990 | 0.0014
2000 | 0.0016
2010 | 0.0014

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

zebra, n. was revised in June 2018.