zootheism, n.

zootheism
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zootheism_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zootheismnoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zootheism mean?

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

### How common is the noun zootheism?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1880 | 0.0033
1890 | 0.0027
1900 | 0.0023
1910 | 0.002
1920 | 0.0015
1930 | 0.0008
1940 | 0.0004
1950 | 0.0003
1960 | 0.0003
1970 | 0.0003
1980 | 0.0003
1990 | 0.0003
2000 | 0.0003
2010 | 0.0003

### How is the noun zootheism pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzuːə(ʊ)θiɪz(ə)m/
ZOO-oh-thee-iz-uhm
/ˌzuːə(ʊ)ˈθiːɪz(ə)m/
zoo-oh-THEE-iz-uhm

#### U.S. English

/ˈzoʊəθiˌɪzəm/
ZOH-uh-thee-iz-uhm
/ˌzoʊəˈθiˌɪzəm/
zoh-uh-THEE-iz-uhm

### Where does the noun zootheism come from?

Earliest known use

1870s

The earliest known use of the noun zootheism is in the 1870s.

OED's earliest evidence for zootheism is from 1879, in the writing of J. W. Powell.

### Nearby entries

1. zoospore, n. 1842–
2. zoosporic, adj. 1854–
3. zoosporous, adj. 1845–
4. zoot, n. 1942–
5. zootaxy, n. 1833–
6. zootechnic, adj. 1861–
7. zootechnics, n. 1863–
8. zootechny, n. 1841–
9. zootheca, n. 1852–
10. zoothecium, n. 1880–
11. zootheism, n.1879–
12. zootheist, n. 1879–
13. zootheistic, adj. 1879–
14. zoothome, n. 1872–
15. zootic, adj. 1816–
16. zootokon, n. 1661
17. zootomic, adj. 1801–
18. zootomical, adj. 1799–
19. zootomically, adv. 1849–
20. zootomist, n. 1663–
21. zootomy, n. 1663–

## Meaning & use

1. 1879–
   The worship or veneration of animals; a belief system characterized by this; cf. zoolatry n.
   1. 1879

      > Let us call this stage zoötheism, when men worship beasts.

      J. W. Powell in Popular Science Monthly October 805
   2. 1901

      > Anthropologists have grouped the myths and faiths of mankind..ascending..through higher zootheism and broadening worship of nature-powers.

      Science 22 March 459/1
   3. 2006

      > The religion of the Cherokees..is a mix of zootheism, or animal worship, combined with the worship of all tangible things including the sun, the moon, and the stars.

      W. Nelson & T. Pipkin, Tao of Willie 31
   animals
   1. zootheism 1879–
      The worship or veneration of animals; a belief system characterized by this; cf. zoolatry, n.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzuːə(ʊ)θiɪz(ə)m/
ZOO-oh-thee-iz-uhm
/ˌzuːə(ʊ)ˈθiːɪz(ə)m/
zoo-oh-THEE-iz-uhm
/ˈzəʊə(ʊ)θiɪz(ə)m/
ZOH-oh-thee-iz-uhm
/ˌzəʊə(ʊ)ˈθiːɪz(ə)m/
zoh-oh-THEE-iz-uhm

### U.S. English

/ˈzoʊəθiˌɪzəm/
ZOH-uh-thee-iz-uhm
/ˌzoʊəˈθiˌɪzəm/
zoh-uh-THEE-iz-uhm
/ˈzuəθiˌɪzəm/
ZOO-uh-thee-iz-uhm
/ˌzuəˈθiˌɪzəm/
zoo-uh-THEE-iz-uhm

####

##### 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

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

zootheism is in frequency band 1, which contains words occurring fewer than 0.001 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 zootheism, n., 1880–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1880 | 0.0033
1890 | 0.0027
1900 | 0.0023
1910 | 0.002
1920 | 0.0015
1930 | 0.0008
1940 | 0.0004
1950 | 0.0003
1960 | 0.0003
1970 | 0.0003
1980 | 0.0003
1990 | 0.0003
2000 | 0.0003
2010 | 0.0003

Originally published as part of the entry for zoo-, comb. form

zoo-, comb. form was revised in June 2017.