First published 2019
Padawannoun
Factsheet
What does the noun Padawan mean?
There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun Padawan. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.
How common is the noun Padawan?
Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English
| Oct.–Dec. 2017 | 0.031 |
| Jan.–Mar. 2018 | 0.03 |
| Apr.–June 2018 | 0.032 |
| July–Sept. 2018 | 0.048 |
| Oct.–Dec. 2018 | 0.047 |
| Jan.–Mar. 2019 | 0.061 |
| Apr.–June 2019 | 0.068 |
| July–Sept. 2019 | 0.076 |
| Oct.–Dec. 2019 | 0.077 |
| Jan.–Mar. 2020 | 0.08 |
| Apr.–June 2020 | 0.069 |
| July–Sept. 2020 | 0.081 |
| Oct.–Dec. 2020 | 0.068 |
| Jan.–Mar. 2021 | 0.064 |
| Apr.–June 2021 | 0.067 |
| July–Sept. 2021 | 0.089 |
| Oct.–Dec. 2021 | 0.09 |
| Jan.–Mar. 2022 | 0.092 |
| Apr.–June 2022 | 0.086 |
| July–Sept. 2022 | 0.094 |
| Oct.–Dec. 2022 | 0.1 |
| Jan.–Mar. 2023 | 0.1 |
How is the noun Padawan pronounced?
British English
/ˈpadəwɒn/
PAD-uh-won
U.S. English
/ˈpædəˌwɑn/
PAD-uh-wahn
Where does the noun Padawan come from?
Earliest known use
1970s
The earliest known use of the noun Padawan is in the 1970s.
OED's earliest evidence for Padawan is from 1973, in the writing of G. Lucas.
An arbitrary formation.
Nearby entries
- pad, v.¹1553–
- pad, v.²1741–
- pad, int.1594–
- pada, n.¹1843–
- pada, n.²1855–
- padang, n.1909–
- Padanian, n. & adj.1996–
- padar, n.a1639–
- padauk, n.1839–
- Padaung, n. & adj.1862–
- Padawan, n.1973–
- padayatra, n.1956–
- pad bracket, n.a1884–
- pad-clinking, adj.1864
- pad-cloth, n.1795–
- pad-crimp press, n.1875
- padded, adj.¹1583–
- padded, adj.²1717–
- padded bra, n.1970–
- padded cell, n.1862–
- padded room, n.1846–
Etymology
Summary
An arbitrary formation.
An arbitrary formation, denoting an apprentice Jedi (see Jedi n.) in the fictional universe of the films of the Star Wars series.
Meaning & use
Contents
- 1973–In the fictional universe of the Star Wars films: an apprentice Jedi (see Jedi n.). Also (often humorously) in extended and allusive use: a youthful, naive, or untrained person. Frequently in young Padawan, esp. as a form of address.Recorded earliest as a modifier.
- 1973
This is the story of Mace Windy..as related to us by C.J. Thorpe, padawaan learner to the famed Jedi.
G. Lucas, Journal of Whills (MS draft) in L. Dowling, Star Wars Year by Year (2010) 29/1 - 1999
You're wise, young Padawan.
What First—Naboo, Coruscant or Tattooine? in rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc (Usenet newsgroup) 9 January - 2012
Here's a picture of me way back when I was just a padawan.
@LancelottMusic 29 November in twitter.com - 2015
Just because it's gratis doesn't mean you have to consume it by the bucket-load. Pace yourself, young Padawan.
Advertiser (Australia) (Nexis) 12 December 16
Pronunciation
British English
/ˈpadəwɒn/
PAD-uh-won
U.S. English
/ˈpædəˌwɑn/
PAD-uh-wahn
Pronunciation keys
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 <petal> /ˈpɛtl/ but <petally> /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 <bitter>
Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence <petal> /ˈpɛd(ə)l/ but <petally> /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
Contents
Inflections
Plural: Padawans, unchanged
Variant forms
1.
- 1900s–Padawaan, Padawan
2. Also with lower-case initial.
Frequency
Padawan typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.
Padawan 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 of Padawan, n., 1970–2010
* Occurrences per million words in written English
Historical frequency series are derived from Google Books Ngrams (version 2), a data set based on a corpus of several million books printed in English between 1500 and 2010. The Ngrams data has been cross-checked against frequency measures from other corpora, and re-analysed in order to handle homographs and other ambiguities.
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.
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 |
|---|---|
| 1970 | 0.0067 |
| 1980 | 0.0089 |
| 1990 | 0.0089 |
| 2000 | 0.0089 |
| 2010 | 0.011 |
Frequency of Padawan, n., 2017–2023
* 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 |
|---|---|
| Oct.–Dec. 2017 | 0.031 |
| Jan.–Mar. 2018 | 0.03 |
| Apr.–June 2018 | 0.032 |
| July–Sept. 2018 | 0.048 |
| Oct.–Dec. 2018 | 0.047 |
| Jan.–Mar. 2019 | 0.061 |
| Apr.–June 2019 | 0.068 |
| July–Sept. 2019 | 0.076 |
| Oct.–Dec. 2019 | 0.077 |
| Jan.–Mar. 2020 | 0.08 |
| Apr.–June 2020 | 0.069 |
| July–Sept. 2020 | 0.081 |
| Oct.–Dec. 2020 | 0.068 |
| Jan.–Mar. 2021 | 0.064 |
| Apr.–June 2021 | 0.067 |
| July–Sept. 2021 | 0.089 |
| Oct.–Dec. 2021 | 0.09 |
| Jan.–Mar. 2022 | 0.092 |
| Apr.–June 2022 | 0.086 |
| July–Sept. 2022 | 0.094 |
| Oct.–Dec. 2022 | 0.1 |
| Jan.–Mar. 2023 | 0.1 |
Entry history for Padawan, n.
Padawan, n. was first published in September 2019
Padawan, n. was last modified in July 2023
oed.com is a living text, updated every three months. Modifications may include:
- further revisions to definitions, pronunciation, etymology, headwords, variant spellings, quotations, and dates;
- new senses, phrases, and quotations.
Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into Padawan, n. in July 2023.
Cite
Chicago
Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “,” , .
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MLA9
“” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, , .
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Citation details
Factsheet for Padawan, n.
Browse entry
Nearby entries
- pad, v.¹1553–
- pad, v.²1741–
- pad, int.1594–
- pada, n.¹1843–
- pada, n.²1855–
- padang, n.1909–
- Padanian, n. & adj.1996–
- padar, n.a1639–
- padauk, n.1839–
- Padaung, n. & adj.1862–
- Padawan, n.1973–
- padayatra, n.1956–
- pad bracket, n.a1884–
- pad-clinking, adj.1864
- pad-cloth, n.1795–
- pad-crimp press, n.1875
- padded, adj.¹1583–
- padded, adj.²1717–
- padded bra, n.1970–
- padded cell, n.1862–
- padded room, n.1846–
