zest, v.

zest
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zest_v%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# zestverb

## Earlier version

- zest, v. in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the verb zest mean?

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

### How common is the verb zest?

About 0.02occurrences per million words in modern written English

1760 | 0.011
1770 | 0.012
1780 | 0.014
1790 | 0.016
1800 | 0.021
1810 | 0.024
1820 | 0.031
1830 | 0.037
1840 | 0.044
1850 | 0.049
1860 | 0.055
1870 | 0.06
1880 | 0.065
1890 | 0.069
1900 | 0.071
1910 | 0.071
1920 | 0.068
1930 | 0.062
1940 | 0.055
1950 | 0.047
1960 | 0.037
1970 | 0.031
1980 | 0.026
1990 | 0.023
2000 | 0.022
2010 | 0.022

### How is the verb zest pronounced?

#### British English

/zɛst/
zest

#### U.S. English

/zɛst/
zest

### Where does the verb zest come from?

Earliest known use

early 1700s

The earliest known use of the verb zest is in the early 1700s.

OED's earliest evidence for zest is from 1702, in a translation by J. K.

It is also recorded as a noun from the late 1600s.

zest is formed within English, by conversion.

Etymons: zest n.1

### Nearby entries

1. zero-sum, adj. 1944–
2. zeroth, adj. 1850–
3. zero tillage, n. 1963–
4. zero tolerance, n. 1940–
5. zerovalent, adj. 1906–
6. zero waste, adj. & n. 1974–
7. zero-zero, adj. & n. 1930–
8. zerumbet, n. 1640–
9. zest, n.¹ 1674–
10. zest, n.² 1706
11. zest, v.1702–
12. zest, int. 1705–22
13. zester, n. 1963–
14. zestful, adj. 1797–
15. zestfully, adv. 1843–
16. zestiness, n. 1912–
17. zesty, adj. 1826–
18. zeta, n.¹?a1425–
19. zeta, n.² 1706–1860
20. zetacism, n. 1860–
21. zeta function, n. 1879–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by conversion.
Etymon: zest n.1
< zest n.1

In sense 1 after French zester (1698 in the passage translated in quot. 1702).

## Meaning & use

1. 1.
   1702–
   transitive. To scrape the zest from (a citrus fruit) for use as a flavouring.
   In quot. 1702: to cut the peel of (a citrus fruit) into strips.
   rare before the second half of the 20th cent.
   1. 1702

      > To Zest, is to cut the Peel, from top to bottom, into small Slips, as thin, as it can possibly be done.

      J. K., translation of F. Massialot, New Instr. Confectioners 57 in Court & Country Cook
   2. 1827

      > Four ounces of sugar (on which has been zested two lemons).

      Domestic Econ. & Cookery for Rich & Poor 534
   3. 1978

      > Begin zesting the citrus using a very sharp vegetable peeler.

      House & Garden June 136/1
   4. 1994

      > Zest the lemons. Squeeze out the juice.

      Caterer & Hotelkeeper 2 June (Chef Supplement) 8/3
   5. 2002

      > As I zested the lemon, her clear blue eyes widened. ‘That's zesting?’ she said. ‘I thought it meant taking the whole peel off.’

      New York Times Magazine 22 September 86/1
   6. 2014

      > Zest the limes and reserve the zest for the vinaigrette.

      N. Vienneau, Third Thursday Community Potluck Cookbook 170
   food and cooking
   1. pare c1300–
      transitive. To trim (an object) by cutting off projecting, irregular, or superficial parts; to cut close to the edge so as to make even or neat; to…
   2. zest 1702–
      transitive. To scrape the zest from (a citrus fruit) for use as a flavouring.
   3. turn 1706–1904
      transitive. Cookery. To pare off the rind or peel of (an orange, lemon, etc.) round and round in a long narrow thin strip; to stone (an olive) in…
   View in Historical Thesaurus
2. 2.
   1705–
   transitive. To add zest to; to add flavour, relish, or piquancy to. Frequently figurative and in figurative contexts.
   1. 1705

      > My Lord, when my Wine's Right I never care it shou'd be Zested.

      C. Cibber, Careless Husband iii. i. 31
   2. 1710

      > Heaven is sometimes pleased with Bitterness to Zest the Bowl of Bliss!

      D. Manley, Memoirs of Europe vol. II. Ded. p. vii
   3. 1737

      > Many more expressions not quite so strongly zested, though but few degrees weaker.

      Lord Hervey, Memoirs (1848) vol. II. xxx. 288
   4. 1760

      > Hundreds sunk to the bottom by one broadside, furnish out the topic of the day and zest his coffee.

      O. Goldsmith in Public Ledger 17 January 20/1
   5. 1862

      > Ye who zest the turtle's nest With the eagle's eyrie.

      G. Meredith, Marian ii
   6. 1871

      > One autumn morning, zested with a sharp frosty feeling.

      H. Marshall, For very Life i. i
   7. 1902

      > Soft crab high zested with brandy and wine.

      New England Magazine January 636/1
   8. 1980

      > A fiery Bloody Mary spiced with some fierce local pepper sauce and zested with limes.

      Field & Stream April 156/2
   9. 1996

      > The plant has a tangy, lemon flavour and is sometimes used to zest food.

      J. Onderstall, Wild Flower Guide 104
   food and cooking
   1. savour c1384–
      transitive. To flavour or season; to add savoury flavour to. Also in figurative contexts (cf. savour, n. II.4a).
   2. season c1400–
      transitive. To render (a dish) more palatable by the addition of some savoury ingredient.
   3. condiment c1420–1854
      transitive. To season or flavour with a condiment; to spice.
   4. powder?c1425–
      transitive. To sprinkle (meat, etc.) with salt or powdered spice, esp. for preserving; to salt; to corn or cure. Also intransitive. British regional…
   5. sauce a1438–
      transitive. In early use: to change or enhance the taste of (a dish) by adding a condiment or other ingredient; to season or flavour (food, drink…
   6. point a1450
      transitive. figurative. To make (food) piquant or sharp. Obsolete. rare.
   7. taste a1577–
      To impart a taste or flavour to; to flavour; also figurative. Now rare.
   8. palate 1610–1845
      transitive. To make palatable, to season. Obsolete. rare.
   9. scent 1655–
      transitive. To flavour (tea, tobacco, etc.) with an aromatic ingredient.
   10. condite 1657–79
       To season, flavour.
   11. zest 1705–
       transitive. To add zest to; to add flavour, relish, or piquancy to. Frequently figurative and in figurative contexts.
   12. kitchen 1720–
       transitive. Scottish, Irish English, and English regional (northern). To give added flavour or relish to (a plain or staple food); to serve as…
   13. dress 1795
       transitive. To prepare (food) for cooking or eating; to season or cook (meat, fish, etc.). Now chiefly: to add a sauce to (food, esp. a salad).
   14. flavour 1830–
       To give flavour, taste, or scent to; to season; in first quot. †to make to ‘smell’ warm.
   15. to zing up 1953–
       transitive. To add a zesty, tangy, or piquant flavour to (food). Cf. zing, n. B.3.
   16. zap 1979–
       To make more powerful, exciting, etc.; to enliven, revitalize; to spice or pep up.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zɛst/
zest

### U.S. English

/zɛst/
zest

####

##### 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

zest typically occurs about 0.02 times per million words in modern written English.

zest is in frequency band 3, which contains words occurring between 0.01 and 0.1 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 zest, v., 1760–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1760 | 0.011
1770 | 0.012
1780 | 0.014
1790 | 0.016
1800 | 0.021
1810 | 0.024
1820 | 0.031
1830 | 0.037
1840 | 0.044
1850 | 0.049
1860 | 0.055
1870 | 0.06
1880 | 0.065
1890 | 0.069
1900 | 0.071
1910 | 0.071
1920 | 0.068
1930 | 0.062
1940 | 0.055
1950 | 0.047
1960 | 0.037
1970 | 0.031
1980 | 0.026
1990 | 0.023
2000 | 0.022
2010 | 0.022

### Frequency of zest, v., 2017–2024

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Modern frequency series are derived from a corpus of 20 billion words, covering the period from 2017 to the present. The corpus is mainly compiled from online news sources, and covers all major varieties of World English.

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 corpus.

Period | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
2017 | 0.053
2018 | 0.051
2019 | 0.05
2020 | 0.048
2021 | 0.05
2022 | 0.052
2023 | 0.053
2024 | 0.055

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. zested, adj. 1769–

zest, v. was revised in June 2018.

zest, v. was last modified in July 2023.