zoetrope, n.

zoetrope
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoetrope_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zoetropenoun

## Earlier version

- zoetrope in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zoetrope mean?

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

### How common is the noun zoetrope?

About 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1860 | 0.0096
1870 | 0.012
1880 | 0.013
1890 | 0.012
1900 | 0.013
1910 | 0.013
1920 | 0.012
1930 | 0.011
1940 | 0.009
1950 | 0.0078
1960 | 0.0086
1970 | 0.0097
1980 | 0.011
1990 | 0.012
2000 | 0.013
2010 | 0.014

### How is the noun zoetrope pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzəʊᵻtrəʊp/
ZOH-uh-trohp

#### U.S. English

/ˈzoʊəˌtroʊp/
ZOH-uh-trohp

### Where does the noun zoetrope come from?

Earliest known use

1860s

The earliest known use of the noun zoetrope is in the 1860s.

OED's earliest evidence for zoetrope is from 1866, in Indianapolis Daily Journal.

zoetrope is a borrowing from Greek, combined with an English element.

Etymons: Greek ζωή, ‑trope comb. form.

### Nearby entries

1. zocco, n. 1664–1723
2. zocle, n. 1704–
3. zoco, n. 1892–
4. zodiac, n. 1390–
5. zodiacal, adj. 1576–
6. zodiac line, n. 1590
7. zodiac ring, n. 1895–
8. zodiographer, n. 1650
9. zoea, n. 1828–
10. zoeal, adj.?1870–
11. zoetrope, n.1866–
12. zographer, n. 1570
13. zography, n. 1570
14. zograscope, n. 1753–
15. Zohar, n. 1682–
16. zoic, adj. 1863–
17. -zoic, comb. form¹
18. -zoic, comb. form²
19. zoid, n. 1856–
20. zoid, adj. 1864–
21. zoidiophilous, adj. 1872–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Greek, combined with an English element.
Etymons: Greek ζωή, ‑trope comb. form.
Irregularly < ancient Greek ζωή life (see zoism n.) + ‑trope comb. form…
Irregularly < ancient Greek ζωή life (see zoism n.) + ‑trope comb. form.

### Notes

Apparently coined by W. E. Lincoln; compare:

1. 1867

   > Be it known that I, William E. Lincoln, of Providence, State of Rhode Island, have invented a new and useful toy called the Zoëtrope.

   W. E. Lincoln, U.S. Patent 64,117 1

In β forms remodelled after zoo- comb. form.

## Meaning & use

1. 1866–
   An optical device or toy consisting of a cylinder with a series of pictures on the inner surface that, when viewed through slits with the cylinder rotating, give an impression of continuous motion.
   1. 1866

      > See the Zoetrope, a wonderful Optical Illusion, at Baldwin's Bazaar.

      Indianapolis Daily Journal 3 December 8/4
   2. 1869

      > And, also, with amusement rife, A ‘Zoetrope, or Wheel of Life’.

      W. S. Gilbert, Bab Ballads 14
   3. 1872

      > The curious toy called the thaumatrope or ‘Zootrope’ or ‘wheel of life’.

      T. H. Huxley, Lessons in Elementary Physiology (ed. 6) x. 245
   4. 1916

      > The zootrope or bioscope became familiar everywhere.

      H. Münsterberg, Photoplay i. 8
   5. 1961

      > The thaumatrope, the phenakistiscope, the zoetrope, and the tachyscope..are the steps by which the modern cinema climbed to its present perfection.

      Glasgow Herald 13 July 6/4
   6. 1975

      > What you get are outlines and black-and-white images on heavy paper, ready to cut out and make up into a zoetrope or a praxinoscope.

      Scientific American December 134/2
   7. 2003

      > The thought gnawed at my heart: everything I had done, a collection of postcards, like a zoetrope made to resemble motion while turning in circles.

      W. Ferguson, Hokkaido Highway Blues (abridged edition) 203
   arts
   1. multiplying-glass 1639–1865
      A toy consisting of a concave glass or lens, the surface of which is cut into facets so as to give numerous reflections of an observed object. Also…
   2. Cartesian devil 1731–
      A philosophical toy, consisting of a hollow figure, partly filled with water and partly with air, and made to float in a vessel nearly filled with…
   3. kaleidoscope 1817–
      An optical instrument, consisting of from two to four reflecting surfaces placed in a tube, at one end of which is a small compartment containing…
   4. myriorama 1823–
      A picture consisting of a number of separate sections which are capable of being combined in numerous ways to form different scenes.
   5. thaumatrope 1827–
      A scientific toy illustrating the persistence of visual impressions, consisting of a card or disk with two different figures drawn upon the two…
   6. bottle imp 1833–
      A toy consisting of a hollow figure which sinks and rises in a container of water; = Cartesian diver Cartesian devil n. at Cartesian, adj. & n.…
   7. phantasmascope 1833–
      = phenakistoscope, n.
   8. phenakistoscope 1834–
      A toy consisting of a disc or drum with figures representing a moving object in successive positions arranged radially on it, to be viewed in such a…
   9. stroboscope 1836–
      A scientific toy which produces the illusion of motion by a series of pictures viewed through the openings of a revolving disc.
   10. anorthoscope 1842–
       An optical toy for viewing distorted figures drawn on a rotating disk.
   11. tantalus-cup 1842–
       See quot. 1842; also figurative.
   12. phantascope 1851–
       = phenakistoscope, n.
   13. phantoscope 1861–
       = phenakistoscope, n.
   14. Pharaoh's serpent 1863–
       A chemical toy composed of mercury thiocyanate, which, when ignited, burns slowly, leaving a brown ash residue which forms a snakelike trail.
   15. phosphoroscope 1866–81
       A scientific toy consisting of an arrangement of glass tubes containing various phosphorescent substances, each of which glows with a different…
   16. zoetrope 1866–
       An optical device or toy consisting of a cylinder with a series of pictures on the inner surface that, when viewed through slits with the…
   17. metamorphoscope 1867–77
       An optical toy which displays pictures composed of a permutation of different sections (see quots.).
   18. wheel of life 1872–
       = zoetrope, n.
   19. myrioscope 1875–
       A kind of kaleidoscope in which patterns are produced by continuous movement of a flat object of fixed design, such as a piece of embroidery, in…
   20. praxinoscope 1878–
       A toy resembling a zoetrope, in which a series of figures representing successive positions of a moving object are arranged on the inner surface…
   21. zoopraxiscope 1881–
       A modified form of zoetrope used to project a series of photographic images of animals or other subjects in order to display their movement; cf. z…
   22. phantoscope 1894
       A kaleidoscope into one end of which an object can be placed to be viewed. Obsolete.
   23. Newton's cradle 1971–
       Physics. attributive and in the genitive. Designating or relating to physical phenomena, concepts… A toy consisting of a number of small metal balls…
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. slider?1793–
      A lantern-slide. ? Obsolete.
   2. magic lantern slide 1802–
   3. slide 1819–
      A picture prepared for use in a magic lantern or stereoscope (now chiefly Historical); a photographic transparency for use in a slide projector.
   4. hyalotype 1851
      (See quot.).
   5. chromatrope 1860–
      A magic-lantern slide consisting of two superposed circular glasses, brilliantly coloured, one of which is made to rotate in front of the other.
   6. zoetrope 1866–
      An optical device or toy consisting of a cylinder with a series of pictures on the inner surface that, when viewed through slits with the…
   7. lantern slide 1871–
   8. photo-hyalotype 1875
      = hyalotype, n.
   9. wheel of colour 1877–
      wheel of colour: = chromatrope, n.
   10. lantern-photograph 1884–
   11. diapositive 1893–
       A transparent positive photographic picture, such as those used as lantern slides.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzəʊᵻtrəʊp/
ZOH-uh-trohp

### U.S. English

/ˈzoʊəˌtroʊp/
ZOH-uh-trohp

####

##### 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

## Forms

### Variant forms

##### α.

1. 1800s
   zoëtrope
2. 1800s–
   zoetrope

##### β.

1. 1800s–
   zootrope

## Frequency

zoetrope typically occurs about 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zoetrope 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 zoetrope, n., 1860–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1860 | 0.0096
1870 | 0.012
1880 | 0.013
1890 | 0.012
1900 | 0.013
1910 | 0.013
1920 | 0.012
1930 | 0.011
1940 | 0.009
1950 | 0.0078
1960 | 0.0086
1970 | 0.0097
1980 | 0.011
1990 | 0.012
2000 | 0.013
2010 | 0.014

### Frequency of zoetrope, n., 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 | 0.0067
2018 | 0.0065
2019 | 0.008
2020 | 0.0097
2021 | 0.0095
2022 | 0.011
2023 | 0.012
2024 | 0.012

zoetrope, n. was revised in September 2017.

zoetrope, n. was last modified in July 2023.