zindabad, int. & n.

zindabad
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zindabad_int%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 2007

# zindabadinterjection & noun

## Factsheet

### What does the word zindabad mean?

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

### How common is the word zindabad?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1930 | 0.0032
1940 | 0.0041
1950 | 0.0046
1960 | 0.0048
1970 | 0.0055
1980 | 0.0055
1990 | 0.0059
2000 | 0.0065
2010 | 0.0062

### How is the word zindabad pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɪndəbɑːd/
ZIN-duh-bahd
/ˈzɪndəbad/
ZIN-duh-bad

#### U.S. English

/ˈzɪndəˌbɑd/
ZIN-duh-bahd
/ˈzɪndəˌbæd/
ZIN-duh-bad

### Where does the word zindabad come from?

Earliest known use

1930s

The earliest known use of the word zindabad is in the 1930s.

OED's earliest evidence for zindabad is from 1930, in the Times of India.

zindabad is of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from Urdu. Partly a borrowing from Persian.

Etymons: Urdu zinda bād; Persian zinda bād.

### Nearby entries

1. zincous, adj. 1842–
2. zinc-plate, n. 1823–
3. zinc-powder, n. 1881–
4. zinc roof, n. 1883–
5. zinc spar, n. 1796–
6. zinc-sponge, n. 1902–
7. zinc sulphide, n. 1851–
8. zinc white, n. 1847–
9. zincy, adj. 1757–
10. zinc yellow, n. 1847–
11. zindabad, int. & n.1930–
12. zindan, n. 1844–
13. Zindikite, n. 1694–
14. Zindiq, n. 1667–
15. zine, n. 1946–
16. zineb, n. 1950–
17. zines, int.?1701–10
18. zinester, n. 1986–
19. zinfandel, n. 1880–
20. zing, v. 1899–
21. zing, int. & n. 1875–

## Etymology

### Summary

Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from Urdu. Partly a borrowing from Persian.
Etymons: Urdu zinda bād; Persian zinda bād.
< (i) Urdu zinda bād,

and its etymon (ii) Persian zinda bād, both in the sense ‘may (he, etc.) live!’ < zinda alive (ultimately < the same Indo-European base as quick adj.) + bād let it be, early modern…
< (i) Urdu zinda bād,

and its etymon (ii) Persian zinda bād, both in the sense ‘may (he, etc.) live!’ < zinda alive (ultimately < the same Indo-European base as quick adj.) + bād let it be, early modern optative form (now only used in set formulae) of būdan to be (ultimately < the same Indo-European base as be v.).

## Meaning & use

1. interjection
   1. 1930–
      —— zindabad!: used, esp. in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, to affirm enduring support for the specified person or thing; long live —— !
      1. 1930

         > A procession of loyalists consisting of Sikhs, Hindus and Mahomedans paraded the bazars at Lyallpur carrying the Union Jack and shouting ‘Government Zindabad’.

         Times of India 16 July 9/3
      2. a1963

         > We had a steadily increasing crowd around us cheering and shouting: ‘Pakistan Zindabad, Jinnah Zindabad’, ‘Cunningham Governor Zindabad’.

         G. Cunningham in N. Mitchell, Sir George Cunningham (1968) vii. 132
      3. 1988

         > At some places on the border the trains were stopped by mobs..heard to chant the slogan ‘Kashmir Day zindabad!’ (perhaps at that very moment, the crowds in Kashmir were shouting ‘Central Intelligence zindabad!’).

         A. Ghosh, Shadow Lines (1989) 229
      4. 2018

         > ‘Are you Pakistani?’ he asked abruptly. His wonderful smile reappeared. ‘Me too, fam. Pakistan zindabad!’ He punched the air and chuckled.

         M. Khan, I am Thunder xi. 71
2. noun
   1. 1938–
      In South Asian contexts: a shout of ‘zindabad’; a shout of approval or encouragement; a cheer.
      1. 1938

         > India's revolutionaries..need not confine their activities to strikes, flag-hoisting, and the shouting of all the various kinds of ‘Zindabads’, and the like.

         Modern Review (India) vol. 64 521/1
      2. 1963

         > The students were squatting on the ground in the open space in the school and loudly greeted the President with jubilation and zindabads.

         Indo-Iranica June 21
      3. 1985

         > He..asked the assembled taxi drivers to raise three zindabads for the nation's supreme leader.

         N. Sahgal, Rich like Us xiii. 151
      4. 2001

         > The collective blood pressure had skyrocketed. No Zindabads were heard.

         Statesman (India) (Nexis) 27 March
      1. shouting c1405–
         Loud crying, uproar, clamour; vociferous applause, acclamation; an instance of this.
      2. cheer 1707–
         Originally Nautical. A shout of acclamation, encouragement, or jubilation; esp. (in singular and plural) the loud, collective shouts and other…
      3. huzzaing 1708–
      4. cheering 1779–
         Shouts of encouragement, acclamation, or jubilation; cheers. Sometimes: spec. the organized cheers and chants of spectators or cheerleaders at a…
      5. three times three 1813–
         In phrases and specific uses. Three in One, (a) = the Trinity, the Triune God (also One in Three, and simply Three); (b) attributive as three-in-One…
      6. chuck-up 1915–
         A cheer; encouragement. Also, a salute.
      7. zindabad 1938–
         In South Asian contexts: a shout of ‘zindabad’; a shout of approval or encouragement; a cheer.
      View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɪndəbɑːd/
ZIN-duh-bahd
/ˈzɪndəbad/
ZIN-duh-bad

### U.S. English

/ˈzɪndəˌbɑd/
ZIN-duh-bahd
/ˈzɪndəˌbæd/
ZIN-duh-bad

####

##### 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.

####

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

Also with capital initial.

## Frequency

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

zindabad 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 zindabad, int. & n., 1930–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1930 | 0.0032
1940 | 0.0041
1950 | 0.0046
1960 | 0.0048
1970 | 0.0055
1980 | 0.0055
1990 | 0.0059
2000 | 0.0065
2010 | 0.0062

### Frequency of zindabad, int. & n., 2017–2024

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Modern frequency series are derived from a corpus of 20 billion words, covering the period from 2017 to the present. The corpus is mainly compiled from online news sources, and covers all major varieties of World English.

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 corpus.

Period | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
2017 | 0.021
2018 | 0.028
2019 | 0.026
2020 | 0.027
2021 | 0.028
2022 | 0.024
2023 | 0.018
2024 | 0.018

zindabad, int. & n. was first published in December 2007.

zindabad, int. & n. was last modified in July 2023.