ziradjective
Factsheet
What does the adjective zir mean?
There is one meaning in OED's entry for the adjective zir. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.
How common is the adjective zir?
| 1990 | 0.0056 |
| 2000 | 0.0056 |
| 2010 | 0.0056 |
How is the adjective zir pronounced?
British English
U.S. English
Where does the adjective zir come from?
Earliest known use
1990s
The earliest known use of the adjective zir is in the 1990s.
OED's earliest evidence for zir is from 1993, in Re: Women going for Guys/Money?.
It is also recorded as a pronoun from the 1990s.
Nearby entries
- zipping, n.1868–
- Zippo, n.¹1944–
- zippo, n.²1973–
- zippy, adj.1889–
- zip tie, n.1969–
- zip-tie, v.1985–
- zip top, n.1926–
- zip-up, adj. & n.1927–
- zip wire, n.1971–
- zir, pron.1993–
- zir, adj.1993–
- ziraleet, n.1794–
- ziram, n.1950–
- zirbal, adj.?a1425–
- zirbus, n.a1400–
- zircaloy, n.1953–
- zircon, n.1794–
- zirconate, n.1820–
- zircon blue, n. & adj.1928–
- zircon earth, n.1794–
- zirconia, n.1794–
Etymology
Meaning & use
- 1993–Used as a gender-neutral possessive adjective (determiner), corresponding to the subjective pronoun ze (ze pron.). Cf. zir pron.Used as an alternative to his or her in contexts where a person's gender is undetermined, and also by or for individuals who do not identify themselves as either male or female, but rather as another or no gender, or as a combination of genders.
- 1993
I do want my partner to be doing something with zir life.
Re: Women going for Guys/Money? in soc.singles 6 December (Usenet newsgroup, accessed 16 Aug. 2018) - 2007
Zie put zir finger in zir mouth.
C. Phair, Nightmare in Silicon xii. 73 - 2018
Seriously, what kind of nerd quotes zir own book. I'm just saying.
@Kris_Ripper 18 July in twitter.com (accessed 16 Aug. 2018)
Pronunciation
British English
U.S. English
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
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
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
- 1900s–xer, xir, xyr, zir
Frequency
zir typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.
zir 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 of zir, adj., 1990–2010
* 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 |
|---|---|
| 1990 | 0.0056 |
| 2000 | 0.0056 |
| 2010 | 0.0056 |