zine, n.

zine
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zine_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# zinenoun

## Earlier version

- zine in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zine mean?

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

### How common is the noun zine?

About 0.3occurrences per million words in modern written English

1940 | 0.089
1950 | 0.086
1960 | 0.082
1970 | 0.12
1980 | 0.2
1990 | 0.28
2000 | 0.32
2010 | 0.41

### How is the noun zine pronounced?

#### British English

/ziːn/
zeen

#### U.S. English

/zin/
zeen

### Where does the noun zine come from?

Earliest known use

1940s

The earliest known use of the noun zine is in the 1940s.

OED's earliest evidence for zine is from 1946, in Startling Stories.

zine is formed within English, by clipping or shortening.

Etymons: fanzine n., magazine n.

### Nearby entries

1. zinc spar, n. 1796–
2. zinc-sponge, n. 1902–
3. zinc sulphide, n. 1851–
4. zinc white, n. 1847–
5. zincy, adj. 1757–
6. zinc yellow, n. 1847–
7. zindabad, int. & n. 1930–
8. zindan, n. 1844–
9. Zindikite, n. 1694–
10. Zindiq, n. 1667–
11. zine, n.1946–
12. zineb, n. 1950–
13. zines, int.?1701–10
14. zinester, n. 1986–
15. zinfandel, n. 1880–
16. zing, v. 1899–
17. zing, int. & n. 1875–
18. zingana, n.¹ 1883
19. zingana, n.² 1911–
20. Zingani, n. 1581–1879
21. Zingara, n. 1756–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by clipping or shortening.
Etymons: fanzine n., magazine n.
Partly (apparently originally) shortened < fanzine n.,

and perhaps also partly (in some later uses) shortened directly < magazine n.

Compare slightly earlier prozine n.

## Meaning & use

colloquial (originally Science Fiction).

1. 1946–
   A magazine, esp. a fanzine or other magazine produced non-professionally for a relatively small audience.
   Originally with reference to science fiction fanzines.
   1. 1946

      > A couple of hunks of the 'zine were torn off in the unbinding process.

      Startling Stories Summer 109/1
   2. 1950

      > One thing about this 'zine, published for the International Science Fiction Correspondence Club, is that it improves with each issue, or so it is fondly hoped.

      Amazing Stories November 151/2
   3. 1977

      > Seems like every time you walk in there's a new cluster of fans clutching embryo 'zines.

      in M. Perry, Sniffin' Glue (2000) 121/1
   4. 1989

      > He continues to write gushing, kick-ass reviews for several zines.

      Sound Choice Autumn 23/1
   5. 1991

      > Fanzines are especially big in suburbia. Almost everyone has a friend who puts out a 'zine.

      D. Gaines, Teenage Wasteland viii. 199
   6. 1993

      > Peter Lamborn Wilson, whose witching-hour blend of Sufism, anarchism, and 'zine culture makes for strange late-night company.

      Village Voice (New York) 20 April 44/2
   7. 2017

      > He is the founder and editor-in-chief of birdsong, a modern collective, small press and zine that publishes contemporary art and writing.

      Oxford Review of Books 23 November 18/1
   literature journalism colloquial and slang
   1. fanzine 1940–
      A magazine produced non-professionally for a particular community of fans. Cf. prozine, n.
   2. zine 1946–
      A magazine, esp. a fanzine or other magazine produced non-professionally for a relatively small audience.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ziːn/
zeen

### U.S. English

/zin/
zeen

####

##### 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

1. 1900s–
   zine, 'zine

## Frequency

zine typically occurs about 0.3 times per million words in modern written English.

zine is in frequency band 4, which contains words occurring between 0.1 and 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 zine, n., 1940–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1940 | 0.089
1950 | 0.086
1960 | 0.082
1970 | 0.12
1980 | 0.2
1990 | 0.28
2000 | 0.32
2010 | 0.41

### Frequency of zine, 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 | 0.27
2018 | 0.27
2019 | 0.27
2020 | 0.26
2021 | 0.25
2022 | 0.24
2023 | 0.24
2024 | 0.22

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. zinester, n. 1986–
   A person who writes for or produces a zine (zine, n.).

zine, n. was revised in March 2021.

zine, n. was last modified in July 2023.