zamorin, n.

zamorin
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zamorin_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1921; not fully revised

# zamorinnoun

## Earlier version

- zamorin in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zamorin mean?

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

This word is used in Indian English.

#### Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

### How common is the noun zamorin?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1750 | 0.24
1760 | 0.24
1770 | 0.23
1780 | 0.28
1790 | 0.14
1800 | 0.15
1810 | 0.15
1820 | 0.16
1830 | 0.14
1840 | 0.12
1850 | 0.039
1860 | 0.039
1870 | 0.031
1880 | 0.029
1890 | 0.018
1900 | 0.0045
1910 | 0.0032
1920 | 0.0033
1930 | 0.0035
1940 | 0.0039
1950 | 0.0037
1960 | 0.0035
1970 | 0.0048
1980 | 0.0062
1990 | 0.0069
2000 | 0.0072
2010 | 0.008

### How is the noun zamorin pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzamərɪn/
ZAM-uh-rin

#### U.S. English

/ˈzæmərən/
ZAM-uh-ruhn

#### Indian English

/ˈzəmərɪn/
/ˈzaːmoːrɪn/

### Where does the noun zamorin come from?

Earliest known use

late 1500s

The earliest known use of the noun zamorin is in the late 1500s.

OED's earliest evidence for zamorin is from 1582, in a translation by Nicholas Lichefield.

zamorin is a borrowing from Portuguese.

Etymons: Portuguese samorim.

### Nearby entries

1. Zamboni, n. 1965–
2. zambra, n. 1672–
3. zambuk, n. 1906–
4. zamburak, n. 1825–
5. zami, n. 1977–
6. Zamia, n. 1819–
7. zamindar, n. 1683–
8. zamindari, n. & adj. 1742–
9. zamindarship, n. 1698–1902
10. zamioid, adj. 1860–
11. zamorin, n.1582–
12. zampino, n. 1881–
13. zampogna, n. 1740–
14. zampone, n. 1860–
15. zamzawed, adj. 1743–
16. Zamzummim, n. 1530–
17. Zande, n. 1873–
18. zander, n. 1854–
19. zanella, n. 1876–
20. zanily, adv. 1936–
21. zaniness, n. 1933–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Portuguese.
Etymon: Portuguese samorim.
< Portuguese samorim, çamorim (Italian samory, 16th cent.), < Malayalam sāmūri, of disputed origin.

## Meaning & use

East India.

1. 1582–
   ‘The title for many centuries of the Hindu Sovereign of Calicut and the country round’ (Yule).
   1. 1582

      > They called him Samoryn, which in theyr tongue is Emperour.

      N. Lichefield, translation of F. L. de Castanheda, 1st Booke of Historie of Discouerie East Indias i. xiv. 33 b
   2. 1601

      > All soueraigne authoritie should rest in the king of Calecute, with the title of Samori.

      R. Johnson, translation of G. Botero, Trauellers Breuiat 143
   3. 1662

      > Since the establishment of the Portuguez in those parts, the power of Zamourin is grown so low,..the King of Cochim is more powerful then he.

      J. Davies, translation of A. Olearius, Voyages & Travels of J. Albert de Mandelslo 111 in Voyages & Travels of Ambassadors
   4. 1776

      > Gama sent two of his officers with Monzaida to wait upon the Zamorim at his palace of Pandarene.

      W. J. Mickle in translation of L. de Camoens, Lusiad Introduction p. xlvii
   5. 1862

      > Calicut,..was then the capital of a Hindoo sovereign, who, under the title of samiry or zamorin, ruled a considerable extent of country.

      H. Beveridge, Comprehensive History of India (new edition) vol. I. i. vii. 156
   6. 1883

      > The Samorin, in 1513, sent a deputation to Portugal.

      F. Day, Indian Fish 17
   Indian English
   1. mirza c1560–
      a. In Persian-speaking areas: a prince. Also used as a title before or, esp. in Iran (Persia), after the name of a prince. b. In Iran (Persia) and…
   2. zamorin 1582–
      ‘The title for many centuries of the Hindu Sovereign of Calicut and the country round’ (Yule).
   3. Rana 1630–
      A Hindu (esp. Rajput) prince or raja; spec. a member of the family of Rajput origin which effectively ruled Nepal from 1846 to 1951. Also used as a…
   4. imam 1698–
      As the title of various sovereign rulers. Also: (in Sunni Islam) a title of the caliph, as leader of the community of the faithful. Now historical.
   5. Nizam 1769–
      (The title of) the hereditary ruler of Hyderabad, a former state of Southern India, divided in 1956 between Andhra Pradesh, Mysore (now Karnataka)…
   6. chagan 1776–
      An ancient form of the word khan, n.¹; applied (after the medieval Latin and Greek chroniclers) to the sovereign of the Avars in the 6th and 7th…
   7. khakan 1777–
      A Tartar ruler: a khan.
   8. Gaekwar 1782–
      (The title of) the ruler of the state of Baroda, India.
   9. Sawbwa 1800–
      The hereditary ruler of a Shan state in Eastern Burma (Myanmar).
   10. temenggong 1964–
       In traditional Malay states, a high-ranking official, usually commanding the army and the police. Also, the title of the rulers of Johore, 1824–85.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzamərɪn/
ZAM-uh-rin

### U.S. English

/ˈzæmərən/
ZAM-uh-ruhn

### Indian English

/ˈzəmərɪn/
/ˈzaːmoːrɪn/

####

##### 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.

####

Where a symbol is indicated as being ‘ELSI’, this symbol is reserved for special use, an Extension of the base symbol set only for where the root language is one of the Languages Spoken in India. In these cases, speakers familiar with that language are more likely to use a sound nearer that of the root language than to fully anglicize.

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ʈtea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ɖdye
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay, beige
- ʋway, vee
- ffore
- t̪thaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- d̪thee
- zzee
- hhay
- llay
- rray
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing
- ʂmasha (ELSI)
- ɳprana (ELSI)
- ɽkankar (ELSI)
- ɭbhelpuri (ELSI)
- ʒ(ELSI only)
- qqila (ELSI)
- xkhalasi (ELSI)
- ɣmurgh (ELSI)

Consonants can be lengthened.

ELSI consonant use – Only for words whose root language is spoken in India, /h/ is also used to indicate salient aspiration, as in kheer /khiːr/. Other consonants including /r/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/, /ʃ/ are used to reflect a broader range of qualities than in some varieties of English, while /nj/ reflects a voiced palatal nasal quality as in jnana /ˈnjaːna/. In words whose root is a language spoken in India, consonants can be followed by length marks where geminated, e.g. batta /ˈbhəθːaː/.

In Indian English, words which would have /ʒ/ in British or American Englishes (e.g. leisure) are transcribed with /dʒ/ instead. Where /ʒ/ does occur, it is as an ELSI symbol as an option for words transliterated zh in Urdu. British and American English /v/ is merged with /w/ (reflected as /ʋ/ in OED, combining features of both sounds). The pronunciation of /f/ may also vary.

Indian English has sounds known as ‘dental plosives’, similar to Irish English, which sound like /t/ and /d/ but with the tongue touching the teeth. These are represented here as /θ/ and /ð/ as they remain distinct from /t/ and /d/.

Unlike in British and U.S. Englishes, consonants are never regarded as being able to take on the function of a vowel.

##### Vowels

- iːfleece
- ihappy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- acomma
- ætrap
- ɑːbath, palm
- ɑː(r)start
- ɑːʋpower
- ʊfoot
- uːgoose
- əstrut
- ə(r)letter
- ərnurse
- ɜːnurse
- ɔlot, cloth
- ɔ(ː)thought
- ɔː(r)north, cure
- eːface
- oːgoat
- oː(r)force, cure
- aʊmouth
- aɪpride
- ɔɪvoice
- ɪə(r)near
- ɛː(r)square
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)

ELSI vowels can be (un)lengthened, nasalized, and/or (de)rhotacized.

ELSI vowels – These vowels are reserved for words whose root language is spoken in India; they are similar in nature to the standard symbols above but vary in length or rhoticity. Vowels may also be nasalised, as in káns /kãs/. Vowels including /ə/, /ʊ/, /aɪ/, /aʊ/ are also used to reflect a broader range of vowel qualities than in some varieties of English.

##### 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

1500s samoryn, 1600s samorine, samorein, samaryn, samarine, zamori, zamourin, ( zamerhin), 1600s–1700s samori, 1600s, 1800s samorin, 1700s–1800s zamorim, 1800s zamorine, 1600s– zamorin.

## Frequency

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

zamorin 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 zamorin, n., 1750–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1750 | 0.24
1760 | 0.24
1770 | 0.23
1780 | 0.28
1790 | 0.14
1800 | 0.15
1810 | 0.15
1820 | 0.16
1830 | 0.14
1840 | 0.12
1850 | 0.039
1860 | 0.039
1870 | 0.031
1880 | 0.029
1890 | 0.018
1900 | 0.0045
1910 | 0.0032
1920 | 0.0033
1930 | 0.0035
1940 | 0.0039
1950 | 0.0037
1960 | 0.0035
1970 | 0.0048
1980 | 0.0062
1990 | 0.0069
2000 | 0.0072
2010 | 0.008

zamorin, n. was first published in 1921; not fully revised.

zamorin, n. was last modified in July 2023.