Zooks, int.

zooks
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zooks_int%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# Zooksinterjection

## Earlier version

- Zooks, int. in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the interjection Zooks mean?

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

### How common is the interjection Zooks?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1750 | 0.032
1760 | 0.038
1770 | 0.034
1780 | 0.032
1790 | 0.041
1800 | 0.04
1810 | 0.04
1820 | 0.032
1830 | 0.025
1840 | 0.024
1850 | 0.023
1860 | 0.013
1870 | 0.012
1880 | 0.011
1890 | 0.013
1900 | 0.013
1910 | 0.012
1920 | 0.012
1930 | 0.011
1940 | 0.0078
1950 | 0.0081
1960 | 0.0055
1970 | 0.0057
1980 | 0.0064
1990 | 0.0062
2000 | 0.0066
2010 | 0.0073

### How is the interjection Zooks pronounced?

#### British English

/zuːks/
zooks
/zʊks/
zuuks

#### U.S. English

/zuks/
zooks

### Where does the interjection Zooks come from?

Earliest known use

early 1600s

The earliest known use of the interjection Zooks is in the early 1600s.

OED's earliest evidence for Zooks is from 1600, in a text by Anthony Munday, playwright and translator, et al.

Zooks is apparently formed within English, by clipping or shortening.

Etymons: Gadzooks int.

### Nearby entries

1. zoographist, n. 1749–1874
2. zoography, n. 1593–
3. zoogyroscope, n. 1880–
4. zooid, n. 1851–
5. zooid, adj. 1849
6. zooidal, adj. 1858–
7. zooidogamous, adj. 1891–
8. zookeeper, n. 1886–
9. zookeeping, n. 1929–
10. Zookers, int. 1620–
11. Zooks, int.1600–
12. zoolater, n. 1876–
13. zoolatrous, adj. 1876–
14. zoolatry, n. 1784–
15. zoolite, n. 1768–
16. zoologer, n. 1663–
17. zoologic, adj. 1766–
18. zoological, adj. & n. 1686–
19. zoological garden, n. 1827–
20. zoologically, adv. 1799–
21. zoologico-, comb. form

## Etymology

### Summary

Apparently formed within English, by clipping or shortening.
Etymon: Gadzooks int.
Apparently short for Gadzooks int. (although this is apparently first attested later).

Compare later Zookers int. Compare also earlier God's sokinges int. at god n. & int. Phrases P.3b.iii…
Apparently short for Gadzooks int. (although this is apparently first attested later).

Compare later Zookers int. Compare also earlier God's sokinges int. at god n. & int. Phrases P.3b.iii.

### Notes

With form Zwookes compare Zwookers at Zookers int. Forms.

## Meaning & use

Now chiefly archaic or humorous.

1. 1600–
   Used as an oath or exclamation expressing asseveration, surprise, etc. Cf. Gadzooks int., Zookers int., Zoodikers int.
   1. 1600

      > Zwookes, do you robbe your ghests?

      A. Munday et al., First Part of True Historie Sir I. Old-castle sig. I2v
   2. 1634

      > Zookes thou art so brave a fellow that I will stick to thee.

      T. Heywood & R. Brome, Late Lancashire Witches iii. sig. F
   3. 1749

      > Zooks, Parson, you remember how he recommended the Veather o' her to me.

      H. Fielding, Tom Jones vol. II. iv. x. 70
   4. 1755

      > He eat a plagy deal, Zooks! he'd have beat five Ploomen at a Meal!

      D. Garrick in J. Brown, Barbarossa Prologue sig. A2
   5. 1842

      > And as for that shocking bad habit of swearing,..leave it to dustmen and mobs, Nor commit yourself much beyond ‘Zooks!’ or ‘Odsbobs!’

      R. H. Barham, Lay St. Cuthbert in Ingoldsby Legends 2nd Series 235
   6. 1855

      > Zooks, what's to blame?

      R. Browning, Fra Lippo Lippi in Men & Women vol. I. 35
   7. 1926

      > But Zooks ! I wished the fiendish speed back again when we struck the avenue.

      American Journal of Nursing vol. 26 261/1
   8. 2015

      > Zooks! Most especially, avoid quarrels with authority figures.

      Daily Sitka (Alaska) Sentinel 6 April 5/3
   archaic humorous
   1. Zooks 1600–
      Used as an oath or exclamation expressing asseveration, surprise, etc. Cf. Gadzooks, int., Zookers, int., Zoodikers, int.
   2. Zookers 1620–
      Used as an oath or exclamation expressing asseveration, surprise, etc. Cf. Zooks, int., Zoodikers, int., zoonters, int.
   3. Gadzooks a1652–
      Used as a mild oath to express surprise, alarm, etc., or to affirm the truth of a statement. Cf. Godzooks, int., Gadzookers, int.
   4. Gadzookers 1672–
      Used as a mild oath to express surprise, alarm, etc., or to affirm the truth of a statement; = Gadzooks, int.
   5. adzooks 1675–
      Used as an oath to express asseveration, surprise, etc.
   6. odzookers 1688–1884
   7. odzooks 1688–1895
   8. cotzooks 1705–19
      As an asseveration or exclamation.
   9. Zoodikers 1749–98
      Used as an oath or exclamation expressing asseveration, surprise, etc. Cf. Zookers, int., Zooks, int., zoonters, int.
   10. od's wucks 1785–1850
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zuːks/
zooks
/zʊks/
zuuks

### U.S. English

/zuks/
zooks

####

##### 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. 1600s
   Zookes, Zwookes
2. 1600s–
   Zooks

## Frequency

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

Zooks 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 Zooks, int., 1750–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1750 | 0.032
1760 | 0.038
1770 | 0.034
1780 | 0.032
1790 | 0.041
1800 | 0.04
1810 | 0.04
1820 | 0.032
1830 | 0.025
1840 | 0.024
1850 | 0.023
1860 | 0.013
1870 | 0.012
1880 | 0.011
1890 | 0.013
1900 | 0.013
1910 | 0.012
1920 | 0.012
1930 | 0.011
1940 | 0.0078
1950 | 0.0081
1960 | 0.0055
1970 | 0.0057
1980 | 0.0064
1990 | 0.0062
2000 | 0.0066
2010 | 0.0073

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. odzooks, int. 1688–1895

Zooks, int. was revised in June 2017.

Zooks, int. was last modified in July 2023.