<scientific LatinZantedeschia, genus name (K. P. J. Sprengel Linnaeus' Systema vegetabilium (ed. 16, 1826) vol. III. 756, 765) < the name of Giovanni Zantedeschi, Italian physician and botanist (1773–1806) + ‑ia‑iasuffix1.
Meaning & use
1836–
A genus of African plants of the family Araceae, comprising rhizomatous perennials with showy lily-like flowers of various colours. Also: (in form zantedeschia) a plant of this genus, esp.Z. aethiopica, the arum or calla lily.
Formerly placed in a genus Richardia (cf. Richardian.2).
1836
Richardia, Kth. Zantedeschia, Spr.
J. Lindley, Natural System of Botany (ed. 2) 364/3
1883
He follows him in the consequent restoration of Sprengel's name, Zandeteschia, for the ‘Calla lily’ (Richardia Aethiopica) and its congeners.
Science 11 May 405/1
1917
When grown for the flowers only, zantedeschias may be planted out permanently on a bench, using very rich soil and giving an abundance of water while growing.
Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulturevol. VI. 3534
1960
Vascular system in monocotyledon leaves... C, D, arrangement of vascular bundles as seen in cross sections of midveins (C) and petiole (D) of Zantedeschia leaf.
K. Esau, Anatomy of Seed Plants xviii. 263 (caption)
2008
The glamorous calla lilies (zantedeschia, which come in shades from black, through orange, to white) tend to prefer damp conditions.
Times (Nexis) 20 April 38
Pronunciation
British English
/zantəˈdɛʃiə/
zan-tuh-DESH-ee-uh
U.S. English
/ˌzæn(t)əˈdɛʃiə/
zan-tuh-DESH-ee-uh
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.
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
Zantedeschia typically occurs about 0.02 times per million words in modern written English.
Zantedeschia is in frequency band 3, which contains words occurring between 0.01 and 0.1 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 Zantedeschia, n., 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
0.0011
1840
0.0008
1850
0.0007
1860
0.0007
1870
0.001
1880
0.0009
1890
0.002
1900
0.0038
1910
0.0058
1920
0.0087
1930
0.01
1940
0.012
1950
0.015
1960
0.017
1970
0.018
1980
0.018
1990
0.018
2000
0.019
2010
0.019
Zantedeschia, n. was first published in June 2010.