Zeug

See also: zeug

English

Etymology

Borrowed from German Zeug.

Proper noun

Zeug (plural Zeugs)

1. A surname from German.

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Zeug is the 80419^th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 236 individuals. Zeug is most common among White (93.64%) individuals.

Further reading

• Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Zeug”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 3, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN.
• Forebears

German

Alternative forms

• Zeugs (chiefly informal and pejorative)

Etymology

From Middle High German ziuc (“stuff, gear”), from Old High German giziug, from Proto-West Germanic *teug, from Proto-Germanic *teugą. Compare Dutch tuig (“tool, gear”), Old Norse tygi (“gear”). More at toy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t͡sɔʏ̯k/ (standard)
• IPA^(key): /t͡sɔʏ̯ç/ (northern and central Germany; now chiefly colloquial)

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔʏ̯k, -ɔɪ̯ç

Noun

Zeug n (strong, genitive Zeuges or Zeugs, plural Zeuge)

1. stuff, gear, equipment

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:Zeug

   Coordinate terms: Ding, Gegenstand, Sache

2. material

   Synonym: Material

3. fabric, clothing, clothes

   Synonym: Stoff

4. rubbish, anything bad or harmful

Usage notes

• The plural Zeuge is quite rare since Zeug is normally an uncountable word. Some compounds, however, are countable (e.g. Fahrzeug) or may be countable depending on the context (e.g. Werkzeug). An alternate obsolete plural is Zeuger.
• Until the 19th century, Zeug was often treated as masculine by southern writers, except in the sense “fabric”, where the masculine was very rare. This usage is now obsolete and Zeug is exclusively neuter in contemporary German.

Declension

Declension of Zeug [neuter, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	das	Zeug	die	Zeuge
genitive	eines	des	Zeuges, Zeugs	der	Zeuge
dative	einem	dem	Zeug, Zeuge1	den	Zeugen
accusative	ein	das	Zeug	die	Zeuge

¹Now rare, see notes.

Derived terms

• Arbeitszeug
• Bettzeug
• Esszeug
• Fahrzeug
• Feuerzeug
• Flickzeug
• Flugzeug
• Halbzeug
• Nähzeug
• Rüstzeug
• Schlagzeug
• Schleckzeug
• Spielzeug
• Werkzeug
• Zahnputzzeug
• Zeughaus

Descendants

• → Czech: cajk

Further reading

• “Zeug” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Zeug” in Duden online
• “Zeug” in Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, 16 vols., Leipzig 1854–1961.
• Friedrich Kluge (1883) “Zeug”, in John Francis Davis, transl., Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, published 1891