Zimbabweanadjective & noun
Factsheet
What does the word Zimbabwean mean?
There are two meanings listed in OED's entry for the word Zimbabwean. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.
How common is the word Zimbabwean?
| 2017 | 4.8 |
| 2018 | 4.5 |
| 2019 | 3.5 |
| 2020 | 3.2 |
| 2021 | 3.0 |
| 2022 | 3.2 |
| 2023 | 3.5 |
| 2024 | 3.6 |
How is the word Zimbabwean pronounced?
British English
U.S. English
Where does the word Zimbabwean come from?
Earliest known use
1960s
The earliest known use of the word Zimbabwean is in the 1960s.
OED's earliest evidence for Zimbabwean is from 1961, in the Economist.
From a proper name, combined with an English element.
Etymons: proper name Zimbabwe, ‑an suffix.
Nearby entries
- -zilla, comb. form
- zilladar, n.1763–
- Zil lane, n.1985–
- zilla parishad, n.1957–
- zillion, n. & adj.1920–
- zillionaire, n.1926–
- zillionth, n. & adj.1940–
- zimb, n.1790–
- Zimba, n.1625–
- Zimbabwe, n.1891–
- Zimbabwean, adj. & n.1961–
- zimbel, n.1888–
- zimme, n.1848–63
- Zimmer, n.1951–
- zina, n.1817–
- zinc, n.1651–
- zinc, v.1843–
- zinc-air, adj.1970–
- Zincala, n.1844–91
- Zincalo, n.1841–
- zinc-alum, n.1851–
Etymology
Summary
Notes
Meaning & use
- adjective
- 1961–Of, belonging to, or relating to the East African country of Zimbabwe or its inhabitants.Formerly the self-governing British colony of Southern Rhodesia, Zimbabwe became an independent republic in 1980.
- 1961
A Zimbabwean politician said..‘We want to be the governors’.
Economist 29 April 453/1 - 1979
Zimbabwean economic and social historiography.
African Affairs vol. 78 253 (heading) - 2018
You are a true Zimbabwean woman.
T. Dangarembga, This Mournable Body (e-book edition)
- Zambian1959–Of, belonging to, or relating to the East African country of Zambia or its inhabitants.
- Zimbabwean1961–Of, belonging to, or relating to the East African country of Zimbabwe or its inhabitants.
- Botswanan1967–Of or relating to Botswana.
- Botswanian1967–= Botswanan, adj.
the world people nations native or inhabitant of Africa native or inhabitant of Southern Africa [adjectives] countries or regions- Angolan1625–Of or relating to Angola or its inhabitants.
- South African1787–Of or relating to southern Africa or its inhabitants; (now) spec. of or relating to South Africa or its inhabitants.
- Malay1811–Of, relating to, or characteristic of the Cape Malays.
- Ciskeian1848–Of or relating to the Ciskei, a territory on the south-eastern coast of South Africa, or its inhabitants. Cf. Transkei, n.
- Zambian1959–Of, belonging to, or relating to the East African country of Zambia or its inhabitants.
- Zimbabwean1961–Of, belonging to, or relating to the East African country of Zimbabwe or its inhabitants.
- Namibian1968–Of or relating to Namibia or its inhabitants.
- Sowetan1977–Of or relating to Soweto or its inhabitants; native to or residing in Soweto.
- noun
- 1961–A native or inhabitant of Zimbabwe.
- 1961
Southern Rhodesian nationalists call themselves ‘Zimbabweans’, after the ruins.
Economist 13 May 660/2 - 1990
The Zimbabwean thinks it could go down to the wire.
Independent 29 September (Weekend section) 51/7 - 2020
Millions of Zimbabweans are in the diaspora.
NewsDay (Zimbabwe) (Nexis) 13 January
the world people nations native or inhabitant of Africa native or inhabitant of Southern Africa [nouns] countries or regions- Angolan1600–A native or inhabitant of Angola.
- Angola1653–As a modifier. Designating people or things originating from or belonging to Angola in south-western Africa. Cf. Angolan, adj.
- Malay1765–In South Africa: a member of the Muslim community of Cape Town and adjoining districts (chiefly descendants of immigrants and slaves from…
- South African1806–A native or inhabitant of southern Africa; (now) spec. a native or inhabitant of South Africa.
- bush boy1822–Usually with capital initial. A boy or young man who is a member of any of various Indigenous peoples of southern Africa, esp. of the Kalahari… See also bushman, n. A.1a, which appears to be the model for this term. The term Bushman is sometimes considered derogatory or offensive. The term San (San, n.² A.1) has sometimes been seen as a preferable alternative; however, both terms are originally exonyms applied to many distinct peoples viewed as having a similar way of life, based on hunting and foraging, in contradistinction to peoples engaged in herding or farming. The peoples included in this grouping usually each refer to themselves with a more specific name, such as !Xun, Khwe, Tswha, etc.
- Ngwaketsea1832–A member of a southern African people inhabiting Botswana. Also as adj.
- Kapenaar1834–An inhabitant of Cape Town or of the Cape Peninsula and its environs.
- Transkeian1847–A native or inhabitant of Transkei, a region situated on the east coast of South Africa to the north-east of the River Kei; spec. (under…
- bosch-man1849–= bushman, n. & adj. (the word used in Holland, however, is boschjesman).
- Natalian1850–A native or inhabitant of Natal, or (now) of KwaZulu-Natal.
- burgher1879–South African. A Dutch-speaking citizen of the Cape Colony, the Natal or Transvaal (South African) Republics, or the Orange Free State before the…
- Transvaaler1887–A native or inhabitant of the Transvaal.
- veldman1895–One skilled in living or hunting on the veldt.
- Griqualander1897–A Griqua; (also) an inhabitant of Griqualand East or Griqualand West.
- Rhodesian1897–A native or inhabitant of Rhodesia, esp. a white one.
- Vaalpens1899–colloquial. A nickname for: (a) An Afrikaner; (b) a Transvaaler.
- backvelder1911–A dweller in the backveld.
- plattelander1934–A native or inhabitant of a rural area.
- southwester1960–Frequently with capital initial(s). A white inhabitant of Namibia.
- Zimbabwean1961–A native or inhabitant of Zimbabwe.
- Zambian1963–A native or inhabitant of Zambia.
- Botswanian1966–= Botswanan, n.
- Botswanan1967–A native or inhabitant of the republic of Botswana.
- Namibian1968–A native or inhabitant of Namibia.
- Ciskeian1973–A native or inhabitant of the Ciskei; spec. (under apartheid) a citizen of the Republic of Ciskei (1981–94) (now historical).
- Sowetan1974–A native or inhabitant of Soweto.
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
Zimbabwean typically occurs about 0.4 times per million words in modern written English.
Zimbabwean is in frequency band 4, which contains words occurring between 0.1 and 1 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands
Frequency of Zimbabwean, adj. & 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 | 0.17 |
| 1970 | 0.26 |
| 1980 | 0.33 |
| 1990 | 0.46 |
| 2000 | 0.55 |
| 2010 | 0.59 |
Frequency of Zimbabwean, adj. & 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 | 4.8 |
| 2018 | 4.5 |
| 2019 | 3.5 |
| 2020 | 3.2 |
| 2021 | 3.0 |
| 2022 | 3.2 |
| 2023 | 3.5 |
| 2024 | 3.6 |