zinnober green, n.

zinnober-green
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zinnober-green_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# zinnober greennoun

## Earlier version

- zinnober in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zinnober green mean?

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

### How common is the noun zinnober green?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1870 | 0.0006
1880 | 0.0005
1890 | 0.0004
1900 | 0.0005
1910 | 0.0006
1920 | 0.0006
1930 | 0.0006
1940 | 0.0006
1950 | 0.0005
1960 | 0.0006
1970 | 0.0005
1980 | 0.0003
1990 | 0.0002
2000 | 0.0002
2010 | 0.0002

### How is the noun zinnober green pronounced?

#### British English

/zᵻˌnəʊbə ˈɡriːn/
zuh-noh-buh GREEN
/tsᵻˌnəʊbə ˈɡriːn/
tsuh-noh-buh GREEN

#### U.S. English

/zəˌnoʊbər ˈɡrin/
zuh-noh-buhr GREEN
/tsəˌnoʊbər ˈɡrin/
tsuh-noh-buhr GREEN

### Where does the noun zinnober green come from?

Earliest known use

1870s

The earliest known use of the noun zinnober green is in the 1870s.

OED's earliest evidence for zinnober green is from 1879, in the writing of D. D. Morse.

zinnober green is a borrowing from German, combined with an English element; modelled on a German lexical item.

Etymons: German Zinnober; green n.1

### Nearby entries

1. zingily, adv. 1951–
2. zinginess, n. 1938–
3. zinging, n. 1921–
4. zinging, adj. 1915–
5. zingingly, adv. 1952–
6. zingo, int. 1906–
7. zingy, adj. 1938–
8. Zinjanthropus, n. 1959–
9. zinke, n. 1773–
10. zinnia, n. 1761–
11. zinnober green, n.1879–
12. zinnwaldite, n. 1850–
13. zino, n. 1982–
14. Zinovievite, adj. & n. 1936–
15. Zinoviev letter, n. 1924–
16. Zion, n. Old English–
17. Zion Curtain, n. 1951–
18. Zioner, n. 1681–1760
19. Zionism, n. 1896–
20. Zionist, n. & adj. a1649–
21. Zionistic, adj. 1887–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from German, combined with an English element; modelled on a German lexical item.
Etymons: German Zinnober; green n.1
< German Zinnober (see cinnabar n.) + green n.1, after German Zinnobergrün (1840 or earlier…
< German Zinnober (see cinnabar n.) + green n.1, after German Zinnobergrün (1840 or earlier).

### Notes

The name apparently referred to its quality as comparable to the red colour of cinnabar (compare German Zinnoberrot (1691 or earlier), occasionally rendered in English as zinnober red (1898 as a colour term, 1911 as a pigment name)).
In the forms zinnabar green, zinnobar green showing alteration after cinnabar n.
New English Dictionary (OED first edition) (1921) gives the pronunciation of zinnober as (zi·nobəɹ) /ˈzɪnəʊbə(r)/ .

## Meaning & use

Now historical.

1. 1879–
   An artist's pigment in various shades of olive green made by mixing Prussian blue with a yellow pigment, usually chrome yellow. Cf. chrome green n. (b).
   1. 1879

      > Zinnober Green, light; Zinnober Green, medium; Zinnober Green, deep.

      D. D. Morse, Secret Pict. Art 121
   2. 1911

      > Because Zinnobar red or Zinnober was a permanent red, some manufacturers have made a Zinnobar green, and have sold it more or less on the implication of excellence on account of the name.

      M. Toch, Materials for Permanent Painting xiv. 173
   3. 1942

      > Zinnober Green is a term ordinarily synonymous with chrome green..which is a processed mixture of chrome yellow and Prussian blue. More specifically, it is given to mixtures that are olive in hue.

      R. J. Gettens & G. L. Stout, Painting Materials 178
   4. 1973

      > Zinnober green is a mixture of Prussian blue and cadmium yellow.

      F. Taubes, Painter's Dictionary 253
   5. 2001

      > There is potential for confusion of viridian with so-called chrome green, a mixture of Prussian blue and chrome yellow that was marketed commercially in the nineteenth century. The identity of this mixed colour is further obscured by the peculiar practice of calling it cinnabar green or zinnober green.

      P. Ball, Bright Earth vii. 177
   historical
   1. greenness Old English–
      Green colour of things other than plants, as the sea, precious stones, clothing, etc. Also: an instance or variety of this. Cf. green, adj. A.I.1b.
   2. green?c1225–
      Green colour; greenness. In plural: different tints of green. †in green (Heraldry): on a field of green (obsolete).
   3. greenhead a1325–1500
      Greenness. Also figurative: immaturity (see green, adj. A.II.8).
   4. greenship c1390
      Greenness.
   5. verdure c1400–
      The fresh green colour characteristic of flourishing vegetation; greenness, viridity.
   6. viridity c1430–
      The quality or state of being virid or green; greenness, verdancy. Also in figurative context.
   7. sinople 1489–1728
      The colour green; spec. in Heraldry, vert.
   8. flourish 1594–1818
      The state or condition of being in blossom, blossoming. Of vegetation: Luxuriant growth, luxuriance, greenness. Obsolete.
   9. deep green 1601–
      A dark, intense green colour.
   10. verdour 1610
       Fresh greenness (of vegetation); figurative fresh or flourishing condition.
   11. verdancy 1631–
       The quality, condition, or character of being verdant; greenness.
   12. verdue 1641–70
       = verdure, n.
   13. zinnober green 1879–
       An artist's pigment in various shades of olive green made by mixing Prussian blue with a yellow pigment, usually chrome yellow. Cf. chrome green, n.…
   14. vernality 1896–
       (See quot. 1896.)
   15. virescence 1904–
       Greenness.
   16. verd 1915–
       poetic. The colour green. rare.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zᵻˌnəʊbə ˈɡriːn/
zuh-noh-buh GREEN
/tsᵻˌnəʊbə ˈɡriːn/
tsuh-noh-buh GREEN

### U.S. English

/zəˌnoʊbər ˈɡrin/
zuh-noh-buhr GREEN
/tsəˌnoʊbər ˈɡrin/
tsuh-noh-buhr GREEN

####

##### 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

### Notes

New English Dictionary (OED first edition) (1921) gives the pronunciation of zinnober as (zi·nobəɹ) /ˈzɪnəʊbə(r)/ .

## Forms

### Variant forms

1. 1800s–1900s
   zinnabar green, zinnobar green
2. 1800s–
   zinnober green, zinober green

## Frequency

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

zinnober green 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 zinnober green, n., 1870–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1870 | 0.0006
1880 | 0.0005
1890 | 0.0004
1900 | 0.0005
1910 | 0.0006
1920 | 0.0006
1930 | 0.0006
1940 | 0.0006
1950 | 0.0005
1960 | 0.0006
1970 | 0.0005
1980 | 0.0003
1990 | 0.0002
2000 | 0.0002
2010 | 0.0002

zinnober green, n. was revised in March 2021.

zinnober green, n. was last modified in December 2024.