zephyrine, adj. & n.

zephyrine
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zephyrine_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# zephyrineadjective & noun

## Factsheet

### What does the word zephyrine mean?

There are two meanings listed in OED's entry for the word zephyrine. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

zephyrine has developed meanings and uses in subjects including

silk (1810s) costume (1820s)

### How common is the word zephyrine?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1820 | 0.0006
1830 | 0.0005
1840 | 0.0005
1850 | 0.0005
1860 | 0.0002
1870 | 0.0002
1880 | 0.0001
1890 | 0.0002
1900 | 0.0001
1910 | 0.00003
1920 | 0.00005
1930 | 0.00006
1940 | 0.00007
1950 | 0.00007
1960 | 0.00008
1970 | 0.00009
1980 | 0.00009
1990 | 0.00009
2000 | 0.0001
2010 | 0.00009

### How is the word zephyrine pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɛf(ə)riːn/
ZEFF-uh-reen
/ˈzɛf(ə)rᵻn/
ZEFF-uh-ruhn

#### U.S. English

/ˈzɛfərən/
ZEFF-uh-ruhn

### Where does the word zephyrine come from?

Earliest known use

1810s

The earliest known use of the word zephyrine is in the 1810s.

OED's earliest evidence for zephyrine is from 1819, in Morning Chronicle.

zephyrine is apparently formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: zephyr n., ‑ine suffix1.

### Nearby entries

1. Zéphirine Drouhin, n. 1901–
2. zephyr, n. Old English–
3. zephyr, v. 1829–
4. zephyranth, n. 1845–
5. zephyranthes, n. 1821–
6. zephyrean, adj. 1793–
7. zephyret, n. 1777–1881
8. zephyr flower, n.?1829–
9. zephyr-gale, n. 1596–1901
10. zephyrian, adj. 1661–
11. zephyrine, adj. & n.1819–
12. zephyring, adj. 1821–
13. zephyrless, adj. a1821–
14. zephyr-like, adv. & adj. 1765–
15. zephyr lily, n.?1877–
16. zephyrous, adj. a1750–
17. zephyry, adj. 1791–
18. Zepp, n. 1914–
19. Zepp, v. 1914–
20. Zeppelin, n. 1896–
21. zeppelin, v. 1910–

## Etymology

### Summary

Apparently formed within English, by derivation.
Apparently < zephyr n. + ‑ine suffix1.

## Meaning & use

Now historical and rare.

1. adjective
   1. 1819–
      Of a garment: made of zephyrine (sense B).
      1. 1819

         > The much admired Zephyrine Turbans.

         Morning Chronicle 4 March 1/3 (advertisement)
      2. 1833

         > Hon. Miss Kenyon.—White satin, covered with a white zephyrine dress, embroidered with violet and gold.

         Ladies' Penny Gazette 2 March 148/1
      3. 1873

         > A span new tea-colored zephyrine polonaise.

         A. D. Whitney, Other Girls iii. 19
      4. 1905

         > An attractive line in zephyrine suitings is offered by Ostrander & Co.

         Textile World Rec. January 73/1
      5. 2011

         > She had donned her favorite olive-green zephyrine pelisse with gold rosettes adorning her hips.

         A. Hawkins, After Dark with Scoundrel viii. 76
      silk historical
      1. pelong 1687–
         Made of pelong.
      2. blonde 1745–
         Designating silk of a natural, undyed, or unbleached colour. Now chiefly historical.
      3. zephyrine 1819–
         Of a garment: made of zephyrine (sense B).
      4. pongee 1830–
         Made of this fabric.
      5. chiné 1841–
         Designating a fabric, esp. of silk, whose pattern is created by the warp threads being dyed, printed, or painted before weaving, resulting in a…
      6. shot-silk 1850–
         Used attributively or adj.= made of or resembling shot silk.
      7. crystalline 1860–
         Designating a type of light silk fabric; made of this fabric.
      8. Henan 1880–
         attributive. Designating a type of plain-weave pongee silk originally manufactured in Henan.
      9. frisé 1884–
         (See quot. 1884.)
      10. Spitalfields 1894–
          Used attributively (sometimes in the form Spitalfield): (a) in Spitalfield(s) breakfast, Spitalfield(s) weaver (see quots.); (b) applied to silk…
      11. Jap 1900–
          colloquial. offensive (usually derogatory or disparaging). Of a garment or other item: made from habutai silk. Cf. Jap silk, n. Now rare.
      12. météor 1909–
          As postmodifier. Designating a silk crêpe fabric backed with satin. Chiefly in crêpe météor.
      View in Historical Thesaurus
2. noun
   1. 1820–
      A thin, light dress fabric, typically made of silk; a garment made of this.
      1. 1820

         > The new silk called zephyrine is also a good deal used in trimmings; its light and soft texture renders it very well adapted for that purpose.

         Repository of Arts July 53/2
      2. 1873

         > Her zephyrine, with its silky shine.

         A. D. Whitney, Other Girls iii. 20
      3. 1889

         > Chambray, lawn, batiste, seersucker, zephyrine and all kinds of wash goods may be satisfactorily made up by this pattern.

         Delineator June 420/1
      4. 1994

         > Serena's own dress of pale blue zephyrine..suddenly seemed very tame.

         S. Andrew, Serena vii. 113
      costume silk historical
      1. valence c1381–1430
         Some thin woven fabric.
      2. Paris crisp 1400
         A thin or delicate textile fabric; a head-covering or veil made of this fabric.
      3. rill 1440
         A kind of thin cloth, perhaps one used for shaving.
      4. tuke 1477–1582
         Canvas, such as is used for an awning or canopy; but also applied to a finer fabric.
      5. utter-fine 1529–64
         utter-fine. elliptical. A superfine make or quality of cloth. Scottish. (Frequently 1537–50.)
      6. Worcester 1551–
         Used attributively to designate articles originating in Worcester, e.g. (formerly) a fine cloth, (now chiefly) a kind of China ware; also elliptical…
      7. cypress 1577–1722
         A name of several textile fabrics originally imported from or through Cyprus. esp. (= cypress lawn) A light transparent material resembling cobweb…
      8. borato 1578–
         A thin fabric: cf. bolt, v.¹, also bolter, n.¹ 2b, bolting, n.³
      9. burat 1588–
         The same as borato, n.
      10. quintain 1674–
          A fine sheer material similar to lawn, originally made in Quintin in Brittany and frequently used as a ground for embroidery; (also) a piece or…
      11. tissue 1732–
          Applied to various rich or fine fabrics of delicate or gauzy texture.
      12. zephyrine 1820–
          A thin, light dress fabric, typically made of silk; a garment made of this.
      13. summer weight 1873–
          A light weight of fabric, suitable for summer clothing; (also) a cloth of such a weight; a garment made from such cloth.
      14. Palm Beach 1913–
          A proprietary name for: fabric or clothing of this kind.
      15. sheer 1934–
          absol. as n.
      16. delicates 1957–
          In plural. Delicate fabrics or garments, esp. items of underwear or lingerie.
      View in Historical Thesaurus
      1. linsey-woolsey 1483–
         Originally a textile material, woven from a mixture of wool and flax; now, a dress material of coarse inferior wool, woven upon a cotton warp. Also p…
      2. kelter 1562–80
         A garment made of this cloth.
      3. buffin 1572–1640
         ‘A coarse cloth in use for the gowns of the middle classes in the time of Elizabeth’ (Fairholt); a garment made of that material. Also attributive.
      4. marry-muff 1604–40
         A type of coarse fabric; = pyramid, n. II.9.
      5. tiffany 1606–
         An article made of tiffany, as a head-dress, a garment, a sieve, etc.
      6. camlet 1623–
         A garment made of camlet. Also figurative.
      7. grogram 1633–
         A garment made of grogram.
      8. pepper-and-salt 1774–
         Cloth made of interwoven dark and light threads, giving a flecked or speckled, greyish appearance; a garment made of this cloth; a person wearing…
      9. toilenette 1790–
         Of an item of clothing (esp. a waistcoat): made of toilenette.
      10. zephyrine 1820–
          A thin, light dress fabric, typically made of silk; a garment made of this.
      11. feather-mail 1843–
          A ceremonial garment of feathers resembling a coat of mail, as formerly worn by certain Mexican and Central American peoples.
      12. alpaca 1853–
          A garment, esp. a coat, made from alpaca wool or a fabric containing this. Now rare.
      13. khaki 1857–
          A fabric of this colour now largely employed in the British army for field-uniforms. Originally of stout twilled cotton (khaki drill), but more…
      14. ramie 1899–
          A skirt-like garment woven from ramie fibre, worn esp. in the South Pacific.
      15. marocain 1922–
          A ribbed crêpe fabric of silk or wool or both; a garment made from this fabric. Also attributive or as adj.
      16. sharkskin 1957–
          a. The skin of sharks used for making shagreen, and also used for polishing, etc.; also attributive; b. (i) a woven or warp-knitted fabric of wool…
      17. Ultrasuede 1973–
          A proprietary name for a synthetic non-woven fabric resembling suede. Also as n., a garment made of this.
      View in Historical Thesaurus
      1. farandine 1672
         A dress made of this material.
      2. tabby 1726–
         Short for tabby gown or dress.
      3. satin 1730–
         A dress or other article of clothing made of satin.
      4. lutestring 1756
         A kind of glossy silk fabric; a dress or a ribbon of this material.
      5. silk 1793–
         A lady's silk dress.
      6. muslin c1794
         Any of various lightweight cotton fabrics in a plain weave. Also: a piece of such fabric; a dress or other article of clothing made of muslin.
      7. zephyrine 1820–
         A thin, light dress fabric, typically made of silk; a garment made of this.
      8. merino 1839–
         A garment, esp. a dress or shawl, made of merino (sense B.2a).
      9. mousseline 1847–
         French muslin; a piece of this; a dress of this material. Also: = mousseline de laine, n., mousseline de soie, n.
      10. moire 1851–69
          A dress or other item of clothing made of this fabric. Obsolete.
      11. velvet 1851–
          A velvet dress.
      12. tarlatan 1852–
          A kind of thin open muslin, used esp. for ball-dresses. Frequently attributive. Also absol., to designate a dress made of this fabric.
      13. velveteen 1873–
          A dress of velveteen.
      14. material dress 1884–
          A dress made of woollen cloth.
      15. tussore 1884–
          A coarse brown silk (furnished by Antheræa mylitta and other species of silkworm) made in and imported from India. Also elliptical a dress made of…
      16. paper dress 1886–
          (In early use probably) a dress made of a paperlike fabric (cf. paper taffeta, n.); (later) a dress made of paper, esp. an inexpensive disposable one.
      17. Gloria 1895–
          A closely-woven fabric of silk and wool or cotton, etc., used for dresses, the covering of umbrellas, etc.; also, a dress of this fabric.
      18. Tibet 1900–
          Used attributively of wool obtained thence, or of cloth or garments made from this or in imitation of it; applied (usually thibet) to (a) a heavy…
      19. tub-dress 1909–
          A dress of washing material: cf. tub-frock, n.
      20. tub-frock 1909–
          = tub-dress, n.
      21. seshweshwe 1956–
          A type of printed cotton fabric, originally dyed with indigo but now available in various colours, featuring intricate, usually geometric…
      22. shweshwe 1973–
          A type of printed cotton fabric, originally dyed with indigo but now available in various colours, featuring intricate, usually geometric…
      View in Historical Thesaurus
      1. sendal a1225–
         A thin rich silken material; also, a covering or garment of this material.
      2. silk chiffon 1530–
         With names of special fabrics, as silk camlet, silk canvas, silk chiffon, silk damask, silk drugget, silk gauze, silk jersey, silk velvet, etc.
      3. silk gauze 1530–
         With names of special fabrics, as silk camlet, silk canvas, silk chiffon, silk damask, silk drugget, silk gauze, silk jersey, silk velvet, etc.
      4. silk jersey 1530–
         With names of special fabrics, as silk camlet, silk canvas, silk chiffon, silk damask, silk drugget, silk gauze, silk jersey, silk velvet, etc.
      5. China silk 1589–
         In the names of specific goods and commodities associated with China. Silk produced in or imported from China; spec. a lightweight, plain-weave silk…
      6. patola 1605–
         Brightly coloured fine silk cloth made by dyeing the thread before weaving; a cloth or sari made of this.
      7. China crepe 1810–
         In the names of specific goods and commodities associated with China. (a) A fine crepe of silk or a similar light fabric; cf. crêpe de chine n. at…
      8. senshaw 1817–1902
         A Chinese gauze-like silk fabric. Also attributive, as senshaw silk.
      9. tulle c1818–
         A fine silk bobbin-net used for women's dresses, veils, hats, etc.
      10. zephyrine 1820–
          A thin, light dress fabric, typically made of silk; a garment made of this.
      11. crêpe de chine 1841–
          In the names of various kinds of fabric of the type described at sense A.1a, typically borrowed… A fine or sheer crepe, typically white or of a…
      12. mousseline de soie 1850–
          A thin silk fabric with a texture like that of muslin.
      13. lisse 1852–
          A kind of silk gauze.
      14. illusion 1857–
          A name given to a thin and very transparent kind of tulle.
      15. sendaline 1866–
          = sendal, n.
      16. louisine 1882–
          (See quot. 1882.)
      17. chameleon tulle 1896–
      18. météor 1908–
          A kind of silk crêpe fabric backed with satin. rare.
      View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɛf(ə)riːn/
ZEFF-uh-reen
/ˈzɛf(ə)rᵻn/
ZEFF-uh-ruhn

### U.S. English

/ˈzɛfərən/
ZEFF-uh-ruhn

####

##### 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

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

zephyrine 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 zephyrine, adj. & n., 1820–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1820 | 0.0006
1830 | 0.0005
1840 | 0.0005
1850 | 0.0005
1860 | 0.0002
1870 | 0.0002
1880 | 0.0001
1890 | 0.0002
1900 | 0.0001
1910 | 0.00003
1920 | 0.00005
1930 | 0.00006
1940 | 0.00007
1950 | 0.00007
1960 | 0.00008
1970 | 0.00009
1980 | 0.00009
1990 | 0.00009
2000 | 0.0001
2010 | 0.00009

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

zephyrine, adj. & n. was revised in June 2018.

zephyrine, adj. & n. was last modified in July 2023.