With sense 1 compare ancient Greekζωγραϕικός skilled in painting (perhaps originally painting from life: see zoographn.), in Hellenistic Greek also connected with painting, used by painters, post-classical Latinzoographicus of or relating to painting (1658 or earlier).
With sense 2 compare ‑graphiccomb. form; with this sense compare also French †zoographique (1771).
Meaning & use
1.
1741–
Of or relating to the depiction or representation of animals or living creatures in general; (sometimes more generally) pictorial; representative. Cf. zoographyn. 2. Now rare.
1741
A new Species of Zoographic Writing, called by the Ancients Symbolic.
W. Warburton, Divine Legation of Mosesvol. II.iv. iv. 111
1870
Both arts [sc. painting and sculpture]..so far as they are zoo-graphic;—representative, that is to say, of animal life.
J. Ruskin, Aratra Pentelici iv. §110
1881
He it was, and not Polygnotos, whose lifelike figures earned him a similar zoographic reputation to that of Giotto.
Academy 17 September 224
1934
Zoographic decoration..and a concentration of ornament on the shoulder and round the handles are broad characteristics of Geometric..art.
Annals of Brit. School Athens 1931–2vol. 32 166
2011
The iconographic, anthropomorphic, and zoographic possibilities inherent in the graphic structure of the script.
Of or relating to the description of animals and their characteristics. In later use esp.: of or relating to (the study of) the geographical distribution of animals; = zoogeographicadj. Cf. zoographyn. 1.
1829
The earlier naturalists, to whom little more than the external structure of animals was known..selected for their zoographic signs the most obvious features of exterior form.
Quarterly Journal Science, Literature, & Art October 336
1879
The deeps surrounding our country may from a physiographic and zoögraphic point of view be divided into two very different regions, viz, the warm and the cold area.
G. O. Sars in Rep. Commissioner 1877 (U.S. Comm. Fish & Fisheries) vol. V. App. A. 685
1905
Our current phytographic and zoographic methods do not allow us to express our ideas of species.
Science 7 April 534/2
1968
T. Northcott..headed-up the Zoographic and Phytographic aspects of the project.
American Antiquityvol. 33 529/1
1981
Efforts to reduce the incidence of animal bites must take into account the demographic, zoographic, and environmental factors.
Public Health Rep. (U.S. Public Health Service) vol. 96 583/2
2009
Radiotelemetry is used extensively in zoographic studies in general and studies of northern bobwhite..in particular.
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.
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.
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
zoographic typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.
zoographic 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 zoographic, adj., 1810–2010
* 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
1810
0.0007
1820
0.0005
1830
0.0004
1840
0.0004
1850
0.0005
1860
0.0006
1870
0.0004
1880
0.0004
1890
0.0005
1900
0.0005
1910
0.0005
1920
0.0002
1930
0.0002
1940
0.0002
1950
0.0003
1960
0.0003
1970
0.0003
1980
0.0004
1990
0.0004
2000
0.0004
2010
0.0004
zoographic, adj. was revised in June 2017.
zoographic, adj. was last modified in September 2024.