zad, n.

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

# zadnoun

## Earlier version

- zad in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zad mean?

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

#### 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 zad?

About 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1750 | 0.041
1760 | 0.043
1770 | 0.04
1780 | 0.037
1790 | 0.029
1800 | 0.028
1810 | 0.024
1820 | 0.019
1830 | 0.013
1840 | 0.01
1850 | 0.0087
1860 | 0.0081
1870 | 0.0082
1880 | 0.0091
1890 | 0.0091
1900 | 0.009
1910 | 0.0087
1920 | 0.0088
1930 | 0.0089
1940 | 0.0089
1950 | 0.0091
1960 | 0.0092
1970 | 0.0099
1980 | 0.011
1990 | 0.011
2000 | 0.011
2010 | 0.011

### How is the noun zad pronounced?

#### British English

/zad/
zad

#### U.S. English

/zæd/
zad

### Where does the noun zad come from?

Earliest known use

mid 1600s

The earliest known use of the noun zad is in the mid 1600s.

OED's earliest evidence for zad is from 1669, in the writing of William Holder, Church of England clergyman and natural philosopher.

zad is a variant or alteration of another lexical item.

Etymons: zed n.

### Nearby entries

1. 'Z, adj.
2. za, n. 1968–
3. zaatar, n. 1917–
4. zabaglione, n. 1899–
5. zabernism, n. 1916–21
6. zabernize, v. 1914
7. zabra, n. 1523–
8. zabuton, n. 1879–
9. zac, n. 1898–
10. 'zackly | 'zactly, adv. 1886–
11. zad, n.1669–
12. Zadokite, n. & adj. 1910–
13. zadruga, n. 1887–
14. zaffre | zaffer, n. 1662–
15. zaftig, adj. 1921–
16. zafu, n. 1965–
17. zag, n., adv., & v. 1793–
18. zagaie | zagaye, n. 1590–1698
19. Zaghlulist, n. & adj. 1921–
20. zaguan, n. 1851–
21. Zahal, n. 1959–

## Etymology

### Summary

A variant or alteration of another lexical item.
Variant of zed n.

## Meaning & use

Obsolete exc. dialect.

1. 1669–
   Name of the letter Z; hence (slang) applied to a thing or person of crooked form. (Cf. zard at izzard n. Forms.)
   1. 1669

      > We may imagine it to have been anciently pronounced, as it is now by the Italians, Ds or Ts; and so to be called Zad from the Hebrew Tsadi: but yet..we..do as often call it Yzard.

      W. Holder, Elements of Speech 140
   2. 1725

      > A meer Zad, used of any bandy-legg'd, crouch-back'd ..Person.

      New Canting Dictionary (at cited word)
   3. 1728

      > Zad, crooked.

      Street-robberies, Consider'd 35
   4. 1778

      > W is defined from its form only, not from its use; and Z zad, or izard is an appellation equally useless.

      N. B. Halhed, Grammar of Bengal Language 6
   5. 1810

      > And how she sooth'd me, when with Study sad I labour'd on to reach the final Zad.

      G. Crabbe, Borough xviii. 238
   6. 1877

      > A labouring man..said..at a night school, ‘I can't made a Zad.’

      Rep. & Trans. Devonshire Association vol. 9 141
   medicine colloquial and slang
   1. zed c1175–
      (A name for) the letter Z, z, the last letter of the alphabet in English and other modern languages (see Z, n.).
   2. zee 1580–
      (A name for) the letter Z, z, the last letter of the alphabet in English and other modern languages (see Z, n.).
   3. izzard 1597–
      Old name for the letter Z.
   4. zad 1669–
      Name of the letter Z; hence (slang) applied to a thing or person of crooked form. (Cf. zard izzard, n. Forms.)
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. misshape c1400–1675
      A misshapen body or person. Obsolete.
   2. monstrosity 1555–
      An animal or plant, or (occasionally) an organ or part, that is atypically developed or is affected by a deformity or malformation. Also: an…
   3. counterfeit 1557–78
      A person whose body differs from the typical form. Cf. A.II.8.
   4. hodmandod 1664–
      figurative. Applied to a person.
   5. zad 1725
      Name of the letter Z; hence (slang) applied to a thing or person of crooked form. (Cf. zard izzard, n. Forms.)
   6. freak 1810–
      A person, plant, or animal with an unusual physical abnormality. Now regarded as offensive when applied to people. Cf. freak of nature.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zad/
zad

### U.S. English

/zæd/
zad

####

##### 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

## Frequency

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

zad 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 zad, 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 | 0.041
1760 | 0.043
1770 | 0.04
1780 | 0.037
1790 | 0.029
1800 | 0.028
1810 | 0.024
1820 | 0.019
1830 | 0.013
1840 | 0.01
1850 | 0.0087
1860 | 0.0081
1870 | 0.0082
1880 | 0.0091
1890 | 0.0091
1900 | 0.009
1910 | 0.0087
1920 | 0.0088
1930 | 0.0089
1940 | 0.0089
1950 | 0.0091
1960 | 0.0092
1970 | 0.0099
1980 | 0.011
1990 | 0.011
2000 | 0.011
2010 | 0.011

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

zad, n. was last modified in March 2024.