zephyrless, adj.

zephyrless
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zephyrless_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# zephyrlessadjective

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zephyrless mean?

There are two meanings listed in OED's entry for the adjective zephyrless. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

### How common is the adjective zephyrless?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1830 | 0.0001
1840 | 0.00009
1850 | 0.0001
1860 | 0.0001
1870 | 0.0001
1880 | 0.0002
1890 | 0.0002
1900 | 0.0003
1910 | 0.0003
1920 | 0.0004
1930 | 0.0004
1940 | 0.0004
1950 | 0.0004
1960 | 0.0003
1970 | 0.0003
1980 | 0.0003
1990 | 0.0002
2000 | 0.0001
2010 | 0.0001

### Where does the adjective zephyrless come from?

Earliest known use

1820s

The earliest known use of the adjective zephyrless is in the 1820s.

OED's earliest evidence for zephyrless is from before 1821, in the writing of John Keats, poet.

### Nearby entries

1. zephyr, v. 1829–
2. zephyranth, n. 1845–
3. zephyranthes, n. 1821–
4. zephyrean, adj. 1793–
5. zephyret, n. 1777–1881
6. zephyr flower, n.?1829–
7. zephyr-gale, n. 1596–1901
8. zephyrian, adj. 1661–
9. zephyrine, adj. & n. 1819–
10. zephyring, adj. 1821–
11. zephyrless, adj.a1821–
12. zephyr-like, adv. & adj. 1765–
13. zephyr lily, n.?1877–
14. zephyrous, adj. a1750–
15. zephyry, adj. 1791–
16. Zepp, n. 1914–
17. Zepp, v. 1914–
18. Zeppelin, n. 1896–
19. zeppelin, v. 1910–
20. Zeppelined, adj. 1915–
21. Zeppelining, n. 1915–

## Meaning & use

1. a1821–
   † a. (In quot. a1821, of wind) characterized by the absence of mild or gentle currents; (hence) strong, violent (obsolete); b. breezeless; calm, still.
   Stressed as ˈzephyrless.
   1. a1821

      > Whose winds, all zephyrless, hold scourging rods.

      J. Keats, To Fanny in R. M. Milnes, Life, Letters & Literary Remains Keats (1848) vol. II. 35
   2. 1905

      > As mild as a zephyrless summer morn.

      Proceedings 36th Ann. Meeting Southeastern Iowa Horticultural Society 276
   3. 2000

      > The zephyrless clear blue sky.

      Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 17 January 5
   weather
   1. calm c1440–
      Free from agitation or disturbance; quiet, still, tranquil, serene; without wind, not stormy. spec. Absolutely without wind.
   2. dead calm 1589–
      a. n. A state in which there is no wind or in which the sea is profoundly calm; completely still conditions; b. adj. (of the weather, a period of…
   3. windless 1605–
      Free from wind; not exposed to or stirred by the wind; in or upon which no wind blows.
   4. breathless?1614–
      Not exposed to or disturbed by the wind; very still (now usually oppressively so); unstirred by the slightest breeze.
   5. airless 1727–
      Breezeless, still.
   6. breezeless a1763–
      Without a breeze; still, calm.
   7. unbreathing 1814–
      Not breathing or respiring; esp. holding the breath; breathless.
   8. zephyrless a1821–
      †a. (In quot. 1821, of wind) characterized by the absence of mild or gentle currents; (hence) strong, violent (obsolete); b. breezeless; calm, still.
   9. dead 1861–
      Of water, air, etc.: without motion or current; still, standing; stale, stagnant. See also dead air, n. 1, dead water, n.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

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

zephyrless is in frequency band 1, which contains words occurring fewer than 0.001 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 zephyrless, adj., 1830–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1830 | 0.0001
1840 | 0.00009
1850 | 0.0001
1860 | 0.0001
1870 | 0.0001
1880 | 0.0002
1890 | 0.0002
1900 | 0.0003
1910 | 0.0003
1920 | 0.0004
1930 | 0.0004
1940 | 0.0004
1950 | 0.0004
1960 | 0.0003
1970 | 0.0003
1980 | 0.0003
1990 | 0.0002
2000 | 0.0001
2010 | 0.0001

Originally published as part of the entry for zephyr, n.

zephyr, n. was revised in June 2018.