zincian, adj.

zincian
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zincian_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1986; not fully revised

# zincianadjective

## Earlier version

- zincian, a. in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zincian mean?

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

#### Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

### How common is the adjective zincian?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1950 | 0.0018
1960 | 0.0017
1970 | 0.0014
1980 | 0.0013
1990 | 0.0011
2000 | 0.0009
2010 | 0.0008

### How is the adjective zincian pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɪŋkɪən/

### Where does the adjective zincian come from?

Earliest known use

1930s

The earliest known use of the adjective zincian is in the 1930s.

OED's earliest evidence for zincian is from 1930, in the writing of W. T. Schaller.

zincian is formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: zinc n., ‑ian suffix 2

### Nearby entries

1. zinc-blende, n. 1842–
2. zinc-bloom, n. 1842–
3. zinc chloride, n. 1851–
4. zinc chromate, n. 1851–
5. zinc chrome, n. 1892–
6. zinc-dust, n. 1877–
7. zinc finger, n. 1987–
8. zinc-foil, n. 1851–
9. zinc green, n. 1847–
10. zinc-grey | zinc-gray, n. 1881–
11. zincian, adj.1930–
12. zincic, adj. 1860–
13. zinciferous, adj. 1820–
14. zincification, n. 1891–
15. zincify, v. 1801–
16. zinc-iron, n. & adj. 1849–
17. zincite, n. 1854–
18. zinckenite, n. 1835–
19. zinco, n. 1887–
20. zinco-, comb. form
21. zincode, n. 1839–

## Etymology

< zinc n. + ‑ian suffix 2.

## Meaning & use

Mineralogy.

1. 1930–
   Of a mineral: having a (small) proportion of a constituent element replaced by zinc.
   1. 1930

      > Zinc—zincian.

      W. T. Schaller in American Mineralogist vol. 15 571
   2. 1968

      > Pisanite is a cuprian variety..; sommairite zincian melanterite.

      I. Kostov, Mineralogy ix. 498
   3. 1977

      > The proportion of zinc is probably insufficient to justify a new name... It might, therefore, be called a zincian takovite.

      American Mineralogist vol. 42 463/2
   minerals
   1. zincy 1757–
      Relating to or containing zinc; resembling or reminiscent of zinc.
   2. zinciferous 1820–
      Containing or producing zinc.
   3. zincic 1860–
      Of, pertaining to, or containing zinc. zincic oxide, oxide of zinc, regarded as the source of the compounds called zincates.
   4. zincian 1930–
      Of a mineral: having a (small) proportion of a constituent element replaced by zinc.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɪŋkɪən/

####

##### 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.

## Frequency

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

zincian 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 zincian, adj., 1950–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1950 | 0.0018
1960 | 0.0017
1970 | 0.0014
1980 | 0.0013
1990 | 0.0011
2000 | 0.0009
2010 | 0.0008

zincian, adj. was first published in 1986; not fully revised.

zincian, adj. was last modified in December 2024.