zloty, n.

zloty
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zloty_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1933; not fully revised

# zlotynoun

## Earlier version

- zloty in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zloty mean?

There are two meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun zloty. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

#### Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

### How common is the noun zloty?

About 0.3occurrences per million words in modern written English

1910 | 0.21
1920 | 0.27
1930 | 0.28
1940 | 0.37
1950 | 0.42
1960 | 0.43
1970 | 0.38
1980 | 0.35
1990 | 0.29
2000 | 0.24
2010 | 0.18

### How is the noun zloty pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzlɒti/
ZLOT-ee

#### U.S. English

/ˈzlɔdi/
ZLAW-dee
/ˈzlɑdi/
ZLAH-dee

### Where does the noun zloty come from?

Earliest known use

1910s

The earliest known use of the noun zloty is in the 1910s.

OED's earliest evidence for zloty is from 1915, in Publications of Scottish History Society.

zloty is a borrowing from Polish.

Etymons: Polish złoty.

### Nearby entries

1. zizz, v. 1883–
2. zizz, int. & n. 1824–
3. zizzing, n. 1884–
4. zizzing, adj. 1919–
5. zizzy, adj. 1843–
6. Zlid, n. 1616–1785
7. Z'life, n. 1689
8. Z line, n. 1916–
9. Z-list, n. & adj. 1979–
10. Z-lister, n. 1999–
11. zloty, n.1915–
12. Zn, n. 1814–
13. -zoa, comb. form
14. -zoan, comb. form
15. zoantharian, adj. & n. 1887–
16. zoanthid, n. 1870–
17. zoanthidan, adj. 1888–
18. zoanthodeme, n. 1877–
19. zoanthoid, adj. 1854–
20. zoanthropic, adj. 1891–
21. zoanthropy, n. 1856–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Polish.
Etymon: Polish złoty.
< Polish złoty, < złoto gold, cognate with Russian zóloto: see gold n.1 & adj.

## Meaning & use

1. 1915–
   a. A gold or silver coin of monarchic Poland. b. The monetary unit of the Polish republic; a note or coin of the republican currency.
   1. 1915

      > The fourth witness..hath borne witness in the following words:—‘I..have seen how Jan Furman, a Scot, hath taken..40 Polish zloty, from that Kilian.’

      Publications of Scottish History Society lix. 63
   2. 1923

      > The Polish Minister of Finance has decided that State loans..shall..be effected in Polish zlotys (a zloty is equivalent to a Swiss franc), at the current market rate.

      Times 3 March 16/6
   3. 1923

      > The zloty, or gold franc, the nominal unit of Poland.

      Times 13 August 14/5
   4. 1944

      > They've imposed a fine of 100,000 zlotys on Pinski!

      V. G. Garvin, translation of R. Gary, Forest of Anger xxiii. 90
   5. 1960

      > When you have a few zlotys in hand, you can come back here and reimburse me.

      S. Becker, translation of A. Schwarz-Bart, Last of Just ii. 40
   6. 1970

      > He promised me a room, food, and a small salary in Polish marks. The zloty wasn't yet established as a currency.

      New Yorker 6 June 33/1
   7. 1983

      > The Polish Government has raised the price of edible salt to between 11 zloty and 17 zloty per kilo.

      Nature 28 July 299/2
   coins and banknotes economics and commerce
   1. stotinka 1892–
      A Bulgarian unit of currency, one-hundredth of a lev; a coin of this value.
   2. lev 1902–
      The basic monetary unit of Bulgaria.
   3. zloty 1915–
      a. A gold or silver coin of monarchic Poland. b. The monetary unit of the Polish republic; a note or coin of the republican currency.
   4. koruna 1920–
      The principal monetary unit of Czechoslovakia until its partition in 1993, and subsequently of the Czech Republic and (until 2009) of Slovakia…
   5. haler 1922–
      In Czechoslovakia, and subsequently in the Czech Republic: a monetary unit introduced in 1892 and equal to one hundredth of a koruna; a coin of this…
   6. lat 1923–
      A unit of gold currency established by the state of Latvia in August 1922, with a par value of about 25 to the pound sterling, and discontinued in…
   7. pengo 1925–
      The former principal monetary unit of Hungary, proposed in 1925 and in use from 1926 to 1946 (when it was replaced by the forint), consisting of 100…
   8. korona 1926–
      The principal monetary unit of Czechoslovakia until its partition in 1993, and subsequently of the Czech Republic and (until 2009) of Slovakia; = k…
   9. lek 1927–
      A unit of currency in Albania.
   10. forint 1946–
       The principal monetary unit of Hungary; a coin of this denomination.
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. Hungar 1650–1756
      A gold coin of Hungary. Also Hungar-dollar.
   2. stotinka 1892–
      A Bulgarian unit of currency, one-hundredth of a lev; a coin of this value.
   3. filler 1904–
      A Hungarian coin, the hundredth part of a forint.
   4. zloty 1915–
      a. A gold or silver coin of monarchic Poland. b. The monetary unit of the Polish republic; a note or coin of the republican currency.
   5. koruna 1920–
      The principal monetary unit of Czechoslovakia until its partition in 1993, and subsequently of the Czech Republic and (until 2009) of Slovakia…
   6. haler 1922–
      In Czechoslovakia, and subsequently in the Czech Republic: a monetary unit introduced in 1892 and equal to one hundredth of a koruna; a coin of this…
   7. forint 1946–
      The principal monetary unit of Hungary; a coin of this denomination.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzlɒti/
ZLOT-ee

### U.S. English

/ˈzlɔdi/
ZLAW-dee
/ˈzlɑdi/
ZLAH-dee

####

##### 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

Plural unchanged, zlotys.

## Frequency

zloty typically occurs about 0.3 times per million words in modern written English.

zloty 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 data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.

### Frequency of zloty, n., 1910–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1910 | 0.21
1920 | 0.27
1930 | 0.28
1940 | 0.37
1950 | 0.42
1960 | 0.43
1970 | 0.38
1980 | 0.35
1990 | 0.29
2000 | 0.24
2010 | 0.18

### Frequency of zloty, 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 | 0.26
2018 | 0.25
2019 | 0.25
2020 | 0.23
2021 | 0.25
2022 | 0.29
2023 | 0.31
2024 | 0.33

zloty, n. was first published in 1933; not fully revised.

zloty, n. was last modified in July 2023.