zephyr, v.

zephyr
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zephyr_v%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# zephyrverb

## Earlier version

- zephyr, v. in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the verb zephyr mean?

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

### How common is the verb zephyr?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1820 | 0.0095
1830 | 0.0089
1840 | 0.0088
1850 | 0.0086
1860 | 0.0077
1870 | 0.008
1880 | 0.0083
1890 | 0.0077
1900 | 0.0073
1910 | 0.0063
1920 | 0.0057
1930 | 0.0046
1940 | 0.0036
1950 | 0.0026
1960 | 0.002
1970 | 0.0017
1980 | 0.0016
1990 | 0.0015
2000 | 0.0015
2010 | 0.0015

### How is the verb zephyr pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɛfə/
ZEFF-uh

#### U.S. English

/ˈzɛfər/
ZEFF-uhr

### Where does the verb zephyr come from?

Earliest known use

1820s

The earliest known use of the verb zephyr is in the 1820s.

OED's earliest evidence for zephyr is from 1829, in Universal Songster.

It is also recorded as a noun from the Old English period (pre-1150).

zephyr is formed within English, by conversion.

Etymons: zephyr n.

### Nearby entries

1. zeolitic, adj. 1782–
2. zeolitical, adj. 1788–
3. zeolitically, adv. 1926–
4. zeolitiform, adj. 1788–
5. zeolitization, n. 1879–
6. zeolitize, v. 1881–
7. zeolitized, adj. 1888–
8. Zephiran, n. 1935–
9. Zéphirine Drouhin, n. 1901–
10. zephyr, n. Old English–
11. zephyr, v.1829–
12. zephyranth, n. 1845–
13. zephyranthes, n. 1821–
14. zephyrean, adj. 1793–
15. zephyret, n. 1777–1881
16. zephyr flower, n.?1829–
17. zephyr-gale, n. 1596–1901
18. zephyrian, adj. 1661–
19. zephyrine, adj. & n. 1819–
20. zephyring, adj. 1821–
21. zephyrless, adj. a1821–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by conversion.
< zephyr n.

## Meaning & use

1. 1829–
   intransitive. Of a wind: to blow gently or mildly. In extended use: to move gently or softly in the manner of a breeze; to waft, to drift. Cf. breeze v.2
   In quot. 1829 transitive: to blow on gently or mildly.
   1. 1829

      > Mr. Windham in Air-street gets zephyred to rest.

      Universal Songster vol. II. 307/2
   2. 1879

      > He has often in his sleep talked of ‘blue doctors’,..these sounds having been heard in the small hours of the morning zephyring from his tent with nasal accompaniments.

      R. T. Pritchett, Gamle Norge: Rambles & Scrambles in Norway 26
   3. 1903

      > A traveling man who zephyred into Washington the other day.

      Washington Post 17 May e5
   4. 1922

      > An aura zephyring round, That care infected not.

      T. Hardy, Late Lyrics & Earlier 111
   5. 1973

      > A light little breeze zephyred in..from the open water.

      J. Jones, Touch of Danger xxiii. 131
   6. 2012

      > I am benefitting from the gentle breeze zephyring though the pretty planting of the window box.

      Business & Finance Magazine (Nexis) 8 August
   weather
   1. breathe 1567–
      intransitive. Of the wind, the air, etc.: to blow softly. With adverbial or prepositional phrase indicating place or direction.
   2. perspire 1648
      intransitive. Of a wind: to breathe or blow gently. Obsolete. rare.
   3. breeze 1682–
      intransitive. To blow gently, as a breeze. rare.
   4. waft 1804–
      Of the breeze: To blow softly.
   5. sniffle 1885–
      transferred. Of a breeze. (Cf. sniffler, n.)
   6. zephyr 1973–
      intransitive. Of a wind: to blow gently or mildly. In extended use: to move gently or softly in the manner of a breeze; to waft, to drift. Cf. breeze…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɛfə/
ZEFF-uh

### U.S. English

/ˈzɛfər/
ZEFF-uhr

####

##### 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

## Frequency

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

zephyr 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 zephyr, v., 1820–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1820 | 0.0095
1830 | 0.0089
1840 | 0.0088
1850 | 0.0086
1860 | 0.0077
1870 | 0.008
1880 | 0.0083
1890 | 0.0077
1900 | 0.0073
1910 | 0.0063
1920 | 0.0057
1930 | 0.0046
1940 | 0.0036
1950 | 0.0026
1960 | 0.002
1970 | 0.0017
1980 | 0.0016
1990 | 0.0015
2000 | 0.0015
2010 | 0.0015

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. zephyring, adj. 1821–
   Attended by or characterized by zephyrs; blowing…

zephyr, v. was revised in June 2018.

zephyr, v. was last modified in June 2025.