zestfulness, n.

zestfulness
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zestfulness_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# zestfulnessnoun

## Factsheet

### Where does the noun zestfulness come from?

Earliest known use

1850s

The earliest known use of the noun zestfulness is in the 1850s.

OED's earliest evidence for zestfulness is from 1850, in Westminster Review.

### How common is the noun zestfulness?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1860 | 0.0001
1870 | 0.0001
1880 | 0.0003
1890 | 0.0006
1900 | 0.0013
1910 | 0.0017
1920 | 0.0023
1930 | 0.0028
1940 | 0.0032
1950 | 0.0033
1960 | 0.0032
1970 | 0.0028
1980 | 0.0026
1990 | 0.0023
2000 | 0.002
2010 | 0.0018

### Nearby entries

1. zero waste, adj. & n. 1974–
2. zero-zero, adj. & n. 1930–
3. zerumbet, n. 1640–
4. zest, n.¹ 1674–
5. zest, n.² 1706
6. zest, v. 1702–
7. zest, int. 1705–22
8. zester, n. 1963–
9. zestful, adj. 1797–
10. zestfully, adv. 1843–
11. zestfulness, n.1850–
12. zestiness, n. 1912–
13. zesty, adj. 1826–
14. zeta, n.¹?a1425–
15. zeta, n.² 1706–1860
16. zetacism, n. 1860–
17. zeta function, n. 1879–
18. zeta-ic, adj. 1840–1927
19. zeta potential, n. 1927–
20. zetetic, adj. & n. 1645–
21. zetetical, adj. & n. 1646–

## Meaning & use

1. 1850–
   See zestful adj.
   Stressed as ˈzestfulness.
   1. 1850

      > What zestfulness in that expression.

      Westminster Review April 328
   2. 1914

      > She realized..a zestfulness she had never known in her former conquests.

      K. E. Oliver, Claw xviii. 156
   3. 2005

      > You can just tell, from the sheer zestfulness of the painting, that he's on his knees learning from them.

      Times 29 November ii. 23/3
   1. wightness 1377–
      The quality of being ‘wight’; valour, courage, bravery; strength, might, force, vigour, energy; activity, agility, alacrity.
   2. vigorousness c1440–
      The quality or state of being vigorous; vigorous condition; vigour.
   3. zestfulness 1850–
   4. gutsiness 1893–
      a. Greediness, gluttony (1825 in Jamieson; 1898 in Eng. Dial. Dict.); b. energy, spirit; courage.
   5. thrustfulness 1907–
   6. zippiness 1907–
      The quality of being zippy (in various senses); speed, liveliness, zest, etc.
   7. vibrance 1934–
      = vibrancy, n.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

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

zestfulness 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 zestfulness, 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 | 0.0001
1870 | 0.0001
1880 | 0.0003
1890 | 0.0006
1900 | 0.0013
1910 | 0.0017
1920 | 0.0023
1930 | 0.0028
1940 | 0.0032
1950 | 0.0033
1960 | 0.0032
1970 | 0.0028
1980 | 0.0026
1990 | 0.0023
2000 | 0.002
2010 | 0.0018

Originally published as part of the entry for zestful, adj.

zestful, adj. was revised in June 2018.