<classical Latinzīziphus (in post-classical Latin also zizyfus) jujube tree (Columella) <Hellenistic Greekζίζυϕον jujube tree, of unknown origin; probably a loanword.Compare zizyphan., and also jujuben.…
<classical Latinzīziphus (in post-classical Latin also zizyfus) jujube tree (Columella) <Hellenistic Greekζίζυϕον jujube tree, of unknown origin; probably a loanword.Compare zizyphan., and also jujuben.
Notes
Compare scientific LatinZiziphus, genus name (P. Miller Gardener's Dict. (1768), after Tournefort (1700)). The form zizyphus was also widely used (e.g. in Rhamnus zizyphus Linnaeus 1753).
Meaning & use
Botany.
?1440–
Any of various spiny shrubs or trees of warm and subtropical regions comprising the genus Ziziphus (family Rhamnaceae), several of which bear an edible fruit (see jujuben. 1). Cf. zizyphan.
(?1440)
Now zizifus [c1450 Bodleian MS. Add. ȝiȝyphus; Latin zizyfum] in cold lond wole ascende.
translation of Palladius, De re Rustica (Duke Humfrey MS.) (1896) vii. l. 84
[Composed ?1440]
1597
Neither doth Columella or Plinie vnaduisedly take this for Ziziphus.
J. Gerard, Herball 1307
1693
Oenoplia a sort of Zizyphus.
N. Staphorst, translation of L. Rauwolf, Trav. Eastern Countriesiii. viii, in J. Ray, Collection of Curious Travelsvol. I. 325
1712
Jujuba, or Zizipha, a large Fruit of the Ziziph Tree.
J. Browne, translation of P. Pomet et al. Compleat History of Druggsvol. I. 134
1741
It seems to me more probable that the Lotus of the Lotophagi is what we now call Zizyphus or the Jujube-tree.
J. Martyn, translation of Virgil, Georgicksii. 84 (note)
1865
The zizyphus and caper crept higher up the hills.
H. B. Tristram, Land of Israel xxii. 527
1882
We are..still camped under a spreading ziziphus.
E. A. Floyer, Unexplored Baluchistan 265
1890
The Crown of Thorns at Notre Dame is made of plaited reeds, in which ziziphus thorns are intertwined.
Daily News 5 April 6/1
1919
For most of the year the water-holes sufficed them, the green, velvet dips, with zizyph-bushes fringing each hollow, which redeem the desert.
E. J. Thompson, Leicestershires beyond Baghdad v. 110
1991
The canal was lined with new forests of tamarisk, ziziphus and mesquite.
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
Forms
Variant forms
α.
late Middle English
ȝiȝyphus, zizifus
late Middle English; 1800s–
ziziphus
1600s–
zizyphus
β.
1700s
ziziph
1800s–1900s
zizyph
Frequency
zizyphus typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.
zizyphus 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 data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.
Frequency of zizyphus, n., 1780–2010
* 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.