Zooksinterjection
Factsheet
What does the interjection Zooks mean?
There is one meaning in OED's entry for the interjection Zooks. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.
How common is the interjection Zooks?
| 1750 | 0.032 |
| 1760 | 0.038 |
| 1770 | 0.034 |
| 1780 | 0.032 |
| 1790 | 0.041 |
| 1800 | 0.04 |
| 1810 | 0.04 |
| 1820 | 0.032 |
| 1830 | 0.025 |
| 1840 | 0.024 |
| 1850 | 0.023 |
| 1860 | 0.013 |
| 1870 | 0.012 |
| 1880 | 0.011 |
| 1890 | 0.013 |
| 1900 | 0.013 |
| 1910 | 0.012 |
| 1920 | 0.012 |
| 1930 | 0.011 |
| 1940 | 0.0078 |
| 1950 | 0.0081 |
| 1960 | 0.0055 |
| 1970 | 0.0057 |
| 1980 | 0.0064 |
| 1990 | 0.0062 |
| 2000 | 0.0066 |
| 2010 | 0.0073 |
How is the interjection Zooks pronounced?
British English
U.S. English
Where does the interjection Zooks come from?
Earliest known use
early 1600s
The earliest known use of the interjection Zooks is in the early 1600s.
OED's earliest evidence for Zooks is from 1600, in a text by Anthony Munday, playwright and translator, et al.
Zooks is apparently formed within English, by clipping or shortening.
Etymons: Gadzooks int.
Nearby entries
- zoographist, n.1749–1874
- zoography, n.1593–
- zoogyroscope, n.1880–
- zooid, n.1851–
- zooid, adj.1849
- zooidal, adj.1858–
- zooidogamous, adj.1891–
- zookeeper, n.1886–
- zookeeping, n.1929–
- Zookers, int.1620–
- Zooks, int.1600–
- zoolater, n.1876–
- zoolatrous, adj.1876–
- zoolatry, n.1784–
- zoolite, n.1768–
- zoologer, n.1663–
- zoologic, adj.1766–
- zoological, adj. & n.1686–
- zoological garden, n.1827–
- zoologically, adv.1799–
- zoologico-, comb. form
Etymology
Notes
Meaning & use
- 1600–Used as an oath or exclamation expressing asseveration, surprise, etc. Cf. Gadzooks int., Zookers int., Zoodikers int.
- 1600
Zwookes, do you robbe your ghests?
A. Munday et al., First Part of True Historie Sir I. Old-castle sig. I2v - 1634
Zookes thou art so brave a fellow that I will stick to thee.
T. Heywood & R. Brome, Late Lancashire Witches iii. sig. F - 1749
Zooks, Parson, you remember how he recommended the Veather o' her to me.
H. Fielding, Tom Jones vol. II. iv. x. 70 - 1755
He eat a plagy deal, Zooks! he'd have beat five Ploomen at a Meal!
D. Garrick in J. Brown, Barbarossa Prologue sig. A2 - 1842
And as for that shocking bad habit of swearing,..leave it to dustmen and mobs, Nor commit yourself much beyond ‘Zooks!’ or ‘Odsbobs!’
R. H. Barham, Lay St. Cuthbert in Ingoldsby Legends 2nd Series 235 - 1855
Zooks, what's to blame?
R. Browning, Fra Lippo Lippi in Men & Women vol. I. 35 - 1926
But Zooks ! I wished the fiendish speed back again when we struck the avenue.
American Journal of Nursing vol. 26 261/1 - 2015
Zooks! Most especially, avoid quarrels with authority figures.
Daily Sitka (Alaska) Sentinel 6 April 5/3
- Zooks1600–Used as an oath or exclamation expressing asseveration, surprise, etc. Cf. Gadzooks, int., Zookers, int., Zoodikers, int.
- Zookers1620–Used as an oath or exclamation expressing asseveration, surprise, etc. Cf. Zooks, int., Zoodikers, int., zoonters, int.
- Gadzooksa1652–Used as a mild oath to express surprise, alarm, etc., or to affirm the truth of a statement. Cf. Godzooks, int., Gadzookers, int.
- Gadzookers1672–Used as a mild oath to express surprise, alarm, etc., or to affirm the truth of a statement; = Gadzooks, int.
- adzooks1675–Used as an oath to express asseveration, surprise, etc.
- odzookers1688–1884
- odzooks1688–1895
- cotzooks1705–19As an asseveration or exclamation.
- Zoodikers1749–98Used as an oath or exclamation expressing asseveration, surprise, etc. Cf. Zookers, int., Zooks, int., zoonters, int.
- od's wucks1785–1850
Pronunciation
British English
U.S. English
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
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
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
- 1600sZookes, Zwookes
- 1600s–Zooks
Frequency
Zooks typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.
Zooks 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 of Zooks, int., 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 | 0.032 |
| 1760 | 0.038 |
| 1770 | 0.034 |
| 1780 | 0.032 |
| 1790 | 0.041 |
| 1800 | 0.04 |
| 1810 | 0.04 |
| 1820 | 0.032 |
| 1830 | 0.025 |
| 1840 | 0.024 |
| 1850 | 0.023 |
| 1860 | 0.013 |
| 1870 | 0.012 |
| 1880 | 0.011 |
| 1890 | 0.013 |
| 1900 | 0.013 |
| 1910 | 0.012 |
| 1920 | 0.012 |
| 1930 | 0.011 |
| 1940 | 0.0078 |
| 1950 | 0.0081 |
| 1960 | 0.0055 |
| 1970 | 0.0057 |
| 1980 | 0.0064 |
| 1990 | 0.0062 |
| 2000 | 0.0066 |
| 2010 | 0.0073 |
Compounds & derived words
- odzooks, int. 1688–1895