Zanzibari, n. & adj.

zanzibari
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zanzibari_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2022

# Zanzibarinoun & adjective

## Earlier version

- Zanzibari, n. and a. in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the word Zanzibari mean?

There are two meanings listed in OED's entry for the word Zanzibari. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

### How common is the word Zanzibari?

About 0.07occurrences per million words in modern written English

1880 | 0.3
1890 | 0.25
1900 | 0.21
1910 | 0.19
1920 | 0.18
1930 | 0.051
1940 | 0.056
1950 | 0.057
1960 | 0.06
1970 | 0.065
1980 | 0.071
1990 | 0.073
2000 | 0.072
2010 | 0.067

### How is the word Zanzibari pronounced?

#### British English

/ˌzanzᵻˈbɑːri/
zan-zuh-BAR-ee

#### U.S. English

/ˌzænzəˈbɑri/
zan-zuh-BAR-ee

#### East African English

/ˌzanziˈbari/

### Where does the word Zanzibari come from?

Earliest known use

1880s

The earliest known use of the word Zanzibari is in the 1880s.

OED's earliest evidence for Zanzibari is from 1882, in the Irish Times.

From a proper name, combined with an English element.

Etymons: proper name Zanzibar, ‑i suffix2.

### Nearby entries

1. zanily, adv. 1936–
2. zaniness, n. 1933–
3. Zante, n. 1615–
4. Zantedeschia, n. 1836–
5. ZANU, n. 1963–
6. zany, n. & adj. 1582–
7. zany, v. 1602–1894
8. zanyish, adj. 1843–
9. zanyism, n. 1823–
10. zanyship, n. 1766–1839
11. Zanzibari, n. & adj.1882–
12. zap, n. 1968–
13. zap, v. 1942–
14. zap, int. 1929–
15. Zapata, n. 1962–
16. zapateado, n. 1845–
17. Zapatism, n. 1911–
18. Zapatismo, n. 1913–
19. Zapatist, n. & adj. 1911–
20. Zapatista, n. & adj. 1911–
21. zapote, n. 1842–

## Etymology

### Summary

From a proper name, combined with an English element.
Etymons: proper name Zanzibar, ‑i suffix2.
< Zanzibar (see note), the name of an archipelago off the east coast of Africa, now an autonomous region of Tanzania + ‑i suffix2.

Compare Persian Zangbārī (noun), Arabic Zanjibārī (adjective and noun…
< Zanzibar (see note), the name of an archipelago off the east coast of Africa, now an autonomous region of Tanzania + ‑i suffix2.

Compare Persian Zangbārī (noun), Arabic Zanjibārī (adjective and noun).

### Notes

In Swahili, the usual name of Zanizbar is Unguja, hence Muunguja person from Zanzibar (plural Waunguja); Zanzibar is also used as a place name in Swahili, but only in specific (e.g. political) contexts (< English).
The name Zanzibar (attested in English contexts from at least the mid 16th cent.) was borrowed < Portuguese Zanzibar (early 16th cent. as Zinzibar, Zanguebar, etc.) or its etymon Arabic Zanjibār, Zanjabār (also Zinjibār) < Persian Zangbār (10th or 11th cent.) < Zang, a former name for a larger area of eastern Africa (see the discussion at Zinjanthropus n.) + ‑bār, suffix denoting a place.
Earlier parallel
Compare also the following, apparently isolated early example of a noun Zanzibarian (subsequently also occasionally found both as adjective and noun from the mid 19th cent.):

1. 1630

   > The whole world,..to the farthest Cafrians, Zanzibarians, and the Inhabitants of the Cape Bonæ Spei.

   J. Squire, Plaine Expos. Epist. to Thessalonians xxvii. 742

## Meaning & use

1. noun
   1. 1882–
      A native or inhabitant of the island of Zanzibar off the coast of East Africa.
      A former British colony, Zanzibar became an independent nation in 1963. It united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form Tanzania. Cf. Tanzanian n.
      1. 1882

         > He made the ascent of the Congo in 1879 with 15 Europeans and 68 Zanzibaris and some Kabundas.

         Irish Times 24 October 4/6
      2. 1985

         > Zanzibaris with foreign exchange were allowed to import essential goods.

         Daily Telegraph 20 August 4/7
      3. 2015

         > We are Zanzibari, discussing the issues of Zanzibar for the benefits of Zanzibari.

         Z. Babaci-White, Lang., Devel. Aid & Human Rights in Education 106
      1. Mozambiquer 1803–
         A native or inhabitant of Mozambique; = Mozambican, n.
      2. Muganda 1863–
         A member of the Ganda (or Baganda) people; a native or inhabitant of the kingdom of Buganda on the north-west shore of Lake Victoria, now part of…
      3. Zanzibari 1882–
         A native or inhabitant of the island of Zanzibar off the coast of East Africa.
      4. Rwanda 1889–
         With plural agreement. The Rwanda people.
      5. Tonga 1891–
         A member of a Bantu-speaking people of Malawi.
      6. Ugandan 1893–
         A native or inhabitant of Uganda.
      7. Eritrean 1902–
         A native or inhabitant of Eritrea.
      8. Tanganyikan 1906–
         A native or inhabitant of Tanganyika. Cf. Tanzanian, n.
      9. White Highlander 1921–
         An inhabitant of the White Highlands in western Kenya; cf. White Highlands, n.
      10. Rwandan 1926–
          A native or inhabitant of Rwanda, a republic in East Africa founded in 1961, or of the kingdom that preceded it.
      11. Kenyan 1930–
          A native or inhabitant of Kenya, a country in East Africa.
      12. Uganda Asian 1948–
          A Ugandan of South Asian origin or descent; = Ugandan Asian, n.
      13. assimilado 1953–
          In the former Portuguese colonies of Africa: an African who has been admitted to Portuguese citizenship. Also attributive.
      14. Kenya Asian 1953–
          A Kenyan of South Asian origin or descent; = Kenyan Asian, n.
      15. Rwandese 1955–
          With plural agreement: Rwandans collectively. With singular agreement: a Rwandan.
      16. Burundian 1962–
          A native or inhabitant of Burundi.
      17. Kenyan Asian 1963–
          A Kenyan of South Asian origin or descent; = Kenya Asian n. at Kenya, n. 2.
      18. Malawian 1963–
          A native or inhabitant of Malawi.
      19. Ugandan Asian 1963–
          A Ugandan of South Asian origin or descent; = Uganda Asian n. at Uganda, n. 2
      20. Tanzanian 1964–
          A native or inhabitant of Tanzania, a country in East Africa formed by the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar in 1964.
      21. Malawi 1966–
          = Malawian, n.
      22. Mozambican 1971–
          A native or inhabitant of Mozambique.
      View in Historical Thesaurus
2. adjective
   1. 1884–
      Of, belonging to, or relating to Zanzibar or its inhabitants.
      1. 1884

         > The author travelled in boats or in small land parties, accompanied by his three faithful Zanzibari servants.

         Athenæum 26 April 531/1
      2. 1975

         > Towering above all a tree bearing tiny reddish buds—the famous cloves, basis of the Zanzibari economy.

         National Geographic April 501/1
      3. 2018

         > The Emerson's Zanzibar Foundation Music Award..is an important part of the ongoing legacy of the visionary Emerson Skeens, whose contributions to Zanzibari culture are incalculable.

         Citizen (Tanzania) (Nexis) 23 February
      1. Nigritian 1757–
         Originally: of, relating to, or characteristic of Nigritia. Also more generally, and in later use: black African or African American.
      2. Sudanic 1802–
         Of, belonging to, or relating to Sudan or its inhabitants; spec. to a proposed family of languages spoken in the Sahelian region of Africa, which…
      3. Sudanese 1853–
         Of, belonging to, or relating to Sudan or its inhabitants.
      4. Mozambican 1875–
         Of or relating to Mozambique or its inhabitants.
      5. Nigerian 1876–
         Of or relating to Nigeria or its inhabitants.
      6. Zanzibari 1884–
         Of, belonging to, or relating to Zanzibar or its inhabitants.
      7. Rhodesian 1892–
         Of, relating to, or from Rhodesia (see etymological note).
      8. Lagosian 1894–
         Of or relating to Lagos; (also) designating a person born or living in Lagos.
      9. Chadian 1960–
         Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Chad or its people.
      10. Katangese 1962–
          Of, relating to, or belonging to Katanga. Cf. Congolese, n. & adj.
      11. Tanzanian 1964–
          Of, belonging to, or relating to Tanzania or its inhabitants.
      12. Namibian 1968–
          Of or relating to Namibia or its inhabitants.
      13. Malawian 1970–
          Of or relating to Malawi or its inhabitants.
      14. Zairean 1973–
          Of or relating to Zaire.
      15. Zairois 1973–
          = Zairean, n. & adj.
      16. Zairese 1974–
          = Zairean, n. & adj. Cf. Zairois, n. & adj.
      View in Historical Thesaurus
      1. East African 1806–
         Of, belonging to, or relating to the eastern parts of Africa, esp. the region including Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.
      2. Muganda 1863–
         Of or relating to the Ganda (or Baganda) people.
      3. Ugandan 1877–
         Of, belonging to, or relating to Uganda or its inhabitants.
      4. Zanzibari 1884–
         Of, belonging to, or relating to Zanzibar or its inhabitants.
      5. Tumbuka 1891–
         Of, belonging to, or relating to the Tumbuka or their language.
      6. Tonga 1893–
         Of, belonging to, or relating to the Tonga of Malawi or their language.
      7. Burundian 1907–
         Of, belonging to, or relating to Burundi or its inhabitants.
      8. Rwandese 1959–
         = Rwandan, adj.
      9. Malawi 1960–
         = Malawian, adj.
      10. Rwandan 1960–
          Of or relating to Rwanda or its people.
      11. Malawian 1970–
          Of or relating to Malawi or its inhabitants.
      View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˌzanzᵻˈbɑːri/
zan-zuh-BAR-ee

### U.S. English

/ˌzænzəˈbɑri/
zan-zuh-BAR-ee

### East African English

/ˌzanziˈbari/

####

##### 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.

####

##### 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 /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.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee, thaw
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- x(Swahili borrowings only)
- hhay
- llay
- 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 as in British and US English.

##### Vowels

- ikit, fleece, happy
- edress, face, nurse
- atrap, strut, bath, palm, nurse, letter
- olot, cloth, thought, north, force, goat
- ufoot, goose
- aumouth
- aipride
- oivoice
- ianear
- easquare
- uacure

##### 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

### Inflections

Plural: Zanzibaris, unchanged

## Frequency

Zanzibari typically occurs about 0.07 times per million words in modern written English.

Zanzibari 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 Zanzibari, n. & adj., 1880–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1880 | 0.3
1890 | 0.25
1900 | 0.21
1910 | 0.19
1920 | 0.18
1930 | 0.051
1940 | 0.056
1950 | 0.057
1960 | 0.06
1970 | 0.065
1980 | 0.071
1990 | 0.073
2000 | 0.072
2010 | 0.067

Zanzibari, n. & adj. was revised in June 2022.

Zanzibari, n. & adj. was last modified in September 2024.