zebra suit, n.

zebra-suit
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zebra-suit_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# zebra suitnoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zebra suit mean?

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

This word is used in U.S. English.

### How common is the noun zebra suit?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1890 | 0.0002
1900 | 0.0001
1910 | 0.0002
1920 | 0.0002
1930 | 0.0001
1940 | 0.0001
1950 | 0.0002
1960 | 0.0003
1970 | 0.0004
1980 | 0.0005
1990 | 0.0005
2000 | 0.0006
2010 | 0.0006

### Where does the noun zebra suit come from?

Earliest known use

1850s

The earliest known use of the noun zebra suit is in the 1850s.

OED's earliest evidence for zebra suit is from 1853, in Madison (Indiana) Dollar Weekly Courier.

### Nearby entries

1. zebra parakeet, n. 1856–
2. zebra plant, n. 1826–
3. zebra poison, n. 1871–74
4. zebra print, n. & adj. 1932–
5. zebra rhomb, n. 1770–1844
6. zebra rock, n. 1895–
7. zebra rush, n. 1882–
8. zebra shark, n. 1804–
9. zebra skin, n. 1774–
10. zebra spider, n. 1806–
11. zebra suit, n.1853–
12. zebra swallowtail, n. 1855–
13. zebra wolf, n. 1808–
14. zebrawood, n. 1768–
15. zebra woodpecker, n. 1884–
16. zebrina, n. 1846–
17. zebrine, adj. a1810–
18. zebroid, adj. & n. 1881–
19. zebrule, n. 1899–
20. zebu, n. 1771–
21. zecchino, n. 1572–

## Meaning & use

U.S. (now chiefly historical).

1. 1853–
   A striped uniform worn by prison inmates or convicts; cf. zebra n. II.4a.
   1. 1853

      > He was stripped at the prison and provided with a Zebra suit.

      Madison (Indiana) Dollar Weekly Courier 8 June
   2. 1885

      > There are over twenty prisoners who are required to work and who wear the zebra suit.

      Annual Rep. Commissioner Indian Affairs 105
   3. 1939

      > A very honest man doesn't make much headway in the world and a very crooked one they put in a zebra suit.

      Logansport (Indiana) Pharos Tribune 22 October 4/2
   4. 2008

      > Willie received his standard issue zebra suit.

      T. Fox, Drummer Boy Willie McGee ix. 117
   costume U.S. English historical
   1. regimentals 1838
      In plural. In extended use: prison uniform. Obsolete. rare.
   2. zebra suit 1853–
      A striped uniform worn by prison inmates or convicts; cf. zebra, n. II.4a.
   3. zebra 1882–
      Applied to a person. U.S. colloquial. A prison inmate or convict wearing a uniform made of a (typically black and white) striped fabric; (also) the…
   4. stripes 1887–
      plural. A prison uniform (with reference to the stripes with which it is patterned). U.S. slang.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

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

zebra suit 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 zebra suit, n., 1890–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1890 | 0.0002
1900 | 0.0001
1910 | 0.0002
1920 | 0.0002
1930 | 0.0001
1940 | 0.0001
1950 | 0.0002
1960 | 0.0003
1970 | 0.0004
1980 | 0.0005
1990 | 0.0005
2000 | 0.0006
2010 | 0.0006

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

zebra, n. was revised in June 2018.