There are three meanings listed in OED's entry for the adjective zooplastic, one of which is labelled obsolete. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.
zooplastic has developed meanings and uses in subjects including
With sense 2 compare Hellenistic Greekζῳοπλαστεῖν to work into a lifelike shape, ζῳοπλαστης divine creator, Byzantine Greekζῳοπλαστία artistic representation.
In sense 3 perhaps after Frenchzooplastique (1876 or earlier); compare earlier autoplasticadj.
Meaning & use
1.
a1855–61
† That creates or shapes life or living things. Obsolete. rare.
a1855
It is most likely that under the Zooplastic forces of the vegetal world this synthesis really takes place.
C. B. Mansfield, Theory of Salts (1865) ii. iii. 136 (note)
1861
Vitality, Zooism, or the Zooplastic principle, would seem to be connected with some peculiar modification of matter.
R. Grattan, Consider. Human Mind ix. 126
2.
1872–
With reference to sculpture, art, etc.: that represents or seeks to represent living beings or animals. rare.
1872
The great mimetic instinct underlies all such purpose [sc. the fashioning of figures of living creatures]; and is zooplastic, life-shaping.
J. Ruskin, Aratra Pentelici ii, in Worksvol. III. 31
1977
Gaudier..warped stone into a new topology that Ruskin would have called zooplastic.
Sewanee Reviewvol. 85 517
2012
Indian designs, pastels and browns and pinks, alternately anthropomorphic or zooplastic.
British Medical Journal 18 February 367/2 (heading)
1929
The inherent difficulties encountered in heteroplastic and zooplastic grafting of other organs does not offer much encouragement when applied to the parathyroid glands.
American Journal of Surgeryvol. 6 33/1
1969
We have eliminated these hazards by using a heterologous zooplastic graft, made of calf bone.
Acta Neurochirurgicavol. 20 59
2008
When Pope Pius XII addressed the Italian Association of Donors of the Cornea in 1956, he distinguished between permissible and morally objectionable ‘zooplastic transplants’.
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.
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.
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
zooplastic typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.
zooplastic 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 zooplastic, adj., 1870–2010
* 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
1870
0.0007
1880
0.0007
1890
0.0007
1900
0.0006
1910
0.0004
1920
0.0004
1930
0.0004
1940
0.0002
1950
0.0001
1960
0.0001
1970
0.00007
1980
0.00006
1990
0.00007
2000
0.00005
2010
0.00006
Originally published as part of the entry for zoo-, comb. form
zooplastic, adj. was revised in June 2017.
zooplastic, adj. was last modified in September 2024.