zincous, adj.

zincous
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zincous_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1921; not fully revised

# zincousadjective

## Earlier version

- zincous, a. in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zincous mean?

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

#### 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 adjective zincous?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1800 | 0.0005
1810 | 0.0074
1820 | 0.014
1830 | 0.013
1840 | 0.013
1850 | 0.013
1860 | 0.013
1870 | 0.013
1880 | 0.0076
1890 | 0.0007
1900 | 0.0003
1910 | 0.0002
1920 | 0.0001
1930 | 0.0001
1940 | 0.0001
1950 | 0.0001
1960 | 0.0001
1970 | 0.00009
1980 | 0.00008
1990 | 0.0001
2000 | 0.0001
2010 | 0.00009

### How is the adjective zincous pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɪŋkəs/

### Where does the adjective zincous come from?

Earliest known use

1840s

The earliest known use of the adjective zincous is in the 1840s.

OED's earliest evidence for zincous is from 1842, in the writing of Thomas Graham, chemist.

zincous is a borrowing from Latin, combined with an English element.

Etymons: Latin zincum, ‑ous suffix.

### Nearby entries

1. zinco, n. 1887–
2. zinco-, comb. form
3. zincode, n. 1839–
4. zincograph, n. 1888–
5. zincograph, v. 1865–
6. zincographer, n. 1839–
7. zincographic, adj. 1850–
8. zincography, n. 1834–
9. zincoid, n. 1842–
10. zinc orange, n. 1918–
11. zincous, adj.1842–
12. zinc-plate, n. 1823–
13. zinc-powder, n. 1881–
14. zinc roof, n. 1883–
15. zinc spar, n. 1796–
16. zinc-sponge, n. 1902–
17. zinc sulphide, n. 1851–
18. zinc white, n. 1847–
19. zincy, adj. 1757–
20. zinc yellow, n. 1847–
21. zindabad, int. & n. 1930–

## Etymology

< modern Latin zincum zinc n. + ‑ous suffix.

## Meaning & use

Chemistry and Electr.

1. 1842–
   Pertaining to or of the nature of zinc; having the affinity of zinc; relatively electropositive. (Opp. to chlorous adj.)
   1. 1842

      > The zincous pole.

      T. Graham, Elements of Chemistry i. iii. 204
   2. 1868

      > It is true in a general way that those elements which differ most strongly in their electrical characters, chlorine and potassium, for example, are likewise those which combine together with the greatest energy; and the division of bodies into electro-positive and electro-negative is therefore retained; the former are also called acid or chlorous, and the latter basylous or zincous.

      Fowne's Chemistry (ed. 10) 277
   chemistry electrical
   1. positive 1808–
      Chemistry. = electropositive, adj. 1.
   2. zincous 1842–
      Pertaining to or of the nature of zinc; having the affinity of zinc; relatively electropositive. (Opp. to chlorous, adj.)
   3. zincopolar
      In various other terms: zincocalcite n. British English/zɪŋkəʊˈkælsaɪt/ Mineralogy (see quot. 1892). zincolysis n. British English/zɪŋˈkɒlɪsɪs/…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɪŋkəs/

####

##### 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.

## Frequency

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

zincous 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 zincous, adj., 1800–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1800 | 0.0005
1810 | 0.0074
1820 | 0.014
1830 | 0.013
1840 | 0.013
1850 | 0.013
1860 | 0.013
1870 | 0.013
1880 | 0.0076
1890 | 0.0007
1900 | 0.0003
1910 | 0.0002
1920 | 0.0001
1930 | 0.0001
1940 | 0.0001
1950 | 0.0001
1960 | 0.0001
1970 | 0.00009
1980 | 0.00008
1990 | 0.0001
2000 | 0.0001
2010 | 0.00009

zincous, adj. was first published in 1921; not fully revised.

zincous, adj. was last modified in December 2024.