zesternoun
Factsheet
What does the noun zester mean?
There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun zester. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.
How common is the noun zester?
| 2017 | 0.0034 |
| 2018 | 0.0046 |
| 2019 | 0.0048 |
| 2020 | 0.0058 |
| 2021 | 0.0063 |
| 2022 | 0.0054 |
| 2023 | 0.0046 |
| 2024 | 0.0044 |
How is the noun zester pronounced?
British English
U.S. English
Where does the noun zester come from?
Earliest known use
1960s
The earliest known use of the noun zester is in the 1960s.
OED's earliest evidence for zester is from 1963, in New York Times.
zester is formed within English, by derivation; perhaps modelled on a French lexical item.
Etymons: zest n.1, ‑er suffix1.
Nearby entries
- zero tillage, n.1963–
- zero tolerance, n.1940–
- zerovalent, adj.1906–
- zero waste, adj. & n.1974–
- zero-zero, adj. & n.1930–
- zerumbet, n.1640–
- zest, n.¹1674–
- zest, n.²1706
- zest, v.1702–
- zest, int.1705–22
- zester, n.1963–
- zestful, adj.1797–
- zestfully, adv.1843–
- zestiness, n.1912–
- zesty, adj.1826–
- zeta, n.¹?a1425–
- zeta, n.²1706–1860
- zetacism, n.1860–
- zeta function, n.1879–
- zeta-ic, adj.1840–1927
- zeta potential, n.1927–
Etymology
Summary
Meaning & use
- 1963–A utensil designed to remove the outer rind of oranges, lemons, and other citrus fruit in thin shreds.
- 1963
Gadget known as a zester cuts lemon or orange rind into fine julienne strips.
New York Times 5 December 60/3 - 1977
‘Certain gadgets are stupid and certain gadgets make a lot of sense,’ Rapoport said as she brandished a lemon zester, which is on her approved list.
Washington Post 28 July f1/4 - 1989
Using a zester, take strips of the skin downwards from each courgette then slice them diagonally.
Decanter November 119/3 - 2008
Wash the lemons well, then thinly pare their zest with a vegetable peeler or zester.
U. McGovern, Lost Crafts (2009) 126
the world food and drink food food manufacture and preparation equipment for food preparation [nouns] tools for preparing fruit or nuts- nutcracker1481–A device for cracking the shell of a nut to reach the kernel.
- nut-crack1570–= nutcracker, n. I.1a. Now rare.
- nutcrackers1600–In plural in same sense; applied spec. to such a device consisting of two pivoted limbs. Frequently as a pair of nutcrackers.
- crackera1640–An instrument for cracking or crushing something; a crusher; spec. in plural nut-crackers.
- crack-nut1656–A nut-cracker. Now dialect.
- corer1679–An implement for removing the core of fruit. Cf. apple corer, n.
- orange-strainer1688–A utensil for straining the juice of an orange.
- apple scoop1696–A scoop or spoon, typically made of bone, used to bore into apples, esp. in order to remove the core.
- orange-peel cutter1757–General attributive, as orange-peel cutter, orange-peel oil, orange-peel water, etc.
- apple corer1778–An instrument for cutting out the core of apples.
- lemon-squeezer1781–a. An instrument for expressing the juice from a lemon; also figurative; b. Australian and New Zealand colloquial, a hat with a peaked crown and…
- orange squeezer1815–
- seeder1865–Originally U.S. A device for extracting seeds from fruit. Cf. seed, v. 9.
- reamer1894–Cookery (originally North American). A utensil or appliance for extracting juice from citrus fruit, typically having a conical, ridged projection…
- stemmer1898–A machine for stemming grapes, etc.
- juicer1938–An appliance used to extract juice from fruit and vegetables.
- zester1963–A utensil designed to remove the outer rind of oranges, lemons, and other citrus fruit in thin shreds.
Pronunciation
British English
U.S. English
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
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
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
Frequency
zester typically occurs about 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.
zester 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 of zester, n., 1960–2010
* 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 |
|---|---|
| 1960 | 0.0056 |
| 1970 | 0.0076 |
| 1980 | 0.009 |
| 1990 | 0.009 |
| 2000 | 0.011 |
| 2010 | 0.013 |
Frequency of zester, 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 | 0.0034 |
| 2018 | 0.0046 |
| 2019 | 0.0048 |
| 2020 | 0.0058 |
| 2021 | 0.0063 |
| 2022 | 0.0054 |
| 2023 | 0.0046 |
| 2024 | 0.0044 |