Zionite, n.

zionite
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zionite_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# Zionitenoun

## Earlier version

- Zionite in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun Zionite mean?

There are two meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun Zionite, one of which is labelled obsolete. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

### How common is the noun Zionite?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1830 | 0.0021
1840 | 0.0036
1850 | 0.0032
1860 | 0.003
1870 | 0.0032
1880 | 0.0034
1890 | 0.0037
1900 | 0.004
1910 | 0.0033
1920 | 0.0036
1930 | 0.0035
1940 | 0.0031
1950 | 0.0032
1960 | 0.0031
1970 | 0.0029
1980 | 0.0026
1990 | 0.0025
2000 | 0.0028
2010 | 0.0025

### How is the noun Zionite pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzʌɪənʌɪt/
ZIGH-uh-night

#### U.S. English

/ˈzaɪəˌnaɪt/
ZIGH-uh-night

### Where does the noun Zionite come from?

Earliest known use

late 1500s

The earliest known use of the noun Zionite is in the late 1500s.

OED's earliest evidence for Zionite is from 1596, in the writing of Anthony Copley, writer and conspirator.

Zionite is formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: Zion n., ‑ite suffix1.

### Nearby entries

1. zinnwaldite, n. 1850–
2. zino, n. 1982–
3. Zinovievite, adj. & n. 1936–
4. Zinoviev letter, n. 1924–
5. Zion, n. Old English–
6. Zion Curtain, n. 1951–
7. Zioner, n. 1681–1760
8. Zionism, n. 1896–
9. Zionist, n. & adj. a1649–
10. Zionistic, adj. 1887–
11. Zionite, n.1596–
12. Zionless, adj. 1908
13. Zionward, adv. 1647–
14. Zionwards, adv. 1674–
15. zip, n.² & adj. 1900–
16. zip, n.³ 1962–
17. zip, n.⁴ 1968–
18. zip, v.¹ 1852–
19. zip, v.² 1964–
20. zip, int. & n.¹ 1678–
21. zip-a-dee-doo-dah, int. & adj. 1945–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by derivation.
Etymons: Zion n., ‑ite suffix1.
< Zion n. + ‑ite suffix1.

With sense 2 compare slightly earlier Zionist n. A.2.

## Meaning & use

1. 1.
   1596–
   A member of a religious group believing in an idealized society or Zion (Zion n. 2a). Now historical.
   1. 1596

      > Oh Sionites no more, But to your tacklings stand like men of honor Like men of Sion, one to twentie score.

      A. Copley, Fig for Fortune 75
   2. 1675

      > The Sionites, the people of God, the citizens of Zion.

      T. Brooks, Paradice Opened 85
   3. 1834

      > Koch and Frick styled themselves and their followers ‘Zionites’. They professed their belief in the universal restoration to God of all rational beings that have ever fallen.

      London Literary Gazette 22 November 779/2
   4. 1886

      > Founded in 1737 by the followers of Elias Eller, a religious enthusiast, Ronsdorf received town-rights in 1745. The Ronsdorf sect, the members of which called themselves Zionites, is now extinct.

      Encyclopædia Britannica vol. XX. 842/2
   5. 2013

      > Some Zionites..invited Parham to address inhabitants interested in the Pentecostal message.

      J. Robinson, Divine Healing iii. 85
   religion historical
   1. Israelite c1384–
      figurative. A person considered as saved by God's grace and hence living in accordance with the spirit, precepts, and teachings of the Christian…
   2. chooseling a1400
      A chosen one; one of the elect.
   3. predestinate 1529–
      Chiefly Theology. A person predestined to salvation or eternal life; one of God's elect. Also as plural with the: God's elect as a class.
   4. elect 1532–1646
      One ‘chosen’ by God, esp. one chosen for eternal salvation; one of ‘the elect’ (cf. A.2).
   5. Zionite 1596–
      A member of a religious group believing in an idealized society or Zion (Zion, n. 2a). Now historical.
   6. comprehensor 1651–1710
      One who has attained to full comprehension. (In 17th cent. Divinity, with reference to Philipp. iii. 12–13: cf. the Vulgate.)
   7. sanctificationist 1868–
      One who has attained ‘entire sanctification’ (see sanctification, n. 1a).
   View in Historical Thesaurus
2. 2.
   1895–1922
   † An advocate or supporter of a movement among Jewish people for the re-establishment of a Jewish nation in Palestine. Cf. Zionist n. A.2. Obsolete. rare.
   1. 1895

      > The most noteworthy agitation of this kind is the nationalistic movement found among sections of the Jews everywhere over the globe, looking to a return to Israel... The protagonists of this movement are known as the Zionites.

      Literary Digest 13 July 19/1
   2. 1922

      > If the Zionites will look into the aforesaid codicil they will find a letter from Paul address [sic] to the Hebrews.

      Daily Mail 24 January 6/1
   1. Zionist 1891–
      Originally: an advocate or supporter of a movement among Jewish people for the re-establishment of a Jewish nation in Palestine. Later: an…
   2. Zionite 1895–1922
      An advocate or supporter of a movement among Jewish people for the re-establishment of a Jewish nation in Palestine. Cf. Zionist, n. A.2. Obsolete…
   3. territorialist 1905–
      Chiefly with capital initial. A supporter or advocate of territorialism (territorialism, n. 6). Cf. Zionist, n. A.2. Now historical.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzʌɪənʌɪt/
ZIGH-uh-night

### U.S. English

/ˈzaɪəˌnaɪt/
ZIGH-uh-night

####

##### 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

1. 1500s–1600s
   Sionite
2. 1800s–
   Zionite

## Frequency

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

Zionite 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 Zionite, n., 1830–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1830 | 0.0021
1840 | 0.0036
1850 | 0.0032
1860 | 0.003
1870 | 0.0032
1880 | 0.0034
1890 | 0.0037
1900 | 0.004
1910 | 0.0033
1920 | 0.0036
1930 | 0.0035
1940 | 0.0031
1950 | 0.0032
1960 | 0.0031
1970 | 0.0029
1980 | 0.0026
1990 | 0.0025
2000 | 0.0028
2010 | 0.0025

Zionite, n. was revised in March 2021.

Zionite, n. was last modified in March 2025.