In most English-speaking countries, the letter Z — our recent focus here in Webb’s “Weird Words” — is pronounced “zed”; and that’s because it originally derives from the Greek letter zeta.
In some regional dialects, Z can even be styled as “izzard”; but of course, American English uses “zee.” In this way, Z rhymes with no less than eight other letters (B, P, V, etc.) — the largest rhyming set in our alphabet. Indeed, the only other similar groups comprise I & Y, along with A, J & K.
Hmmm: Odd language-stuff ya never think about — that seems to be our job here at “Weird Words.”
In keeping with this august proclivity, let’s finish our long-running series on X, Y and Z with a handful of little-known words that all begin with our final letter. (For the record, I’m grabbing most of these definitions from my go-to American Heritage Dictionary, which I picked up for a song at the last Brown Library used-book sale.)
Zinjanthropus (zin-JAN-throw-puhs [or with the stress on THROW], noun) – “An extinct primate postulated from bones found in Tanzania in 1959.”
The genus has been reclassified, so this term is no longer in common use. It derives from the African regional term zinj (probably related to Zanzibar), combined with the Greek anthrop, meaning “man” or “human” (e.g., anthropology, misanthrope, etc.).
Zizith (tsee-TSEET or TSIT-sis, noun) – Judaic term for the 613 fringes of thread representing commandments in the Hebrew Scriptures; these tassels are attached to the corners of a garment worn by observant Jews and Samaritans. Also spelled tzitzit. (Adopted words often have widely variant spellings when the original language uses a different letter-system than English.)
Zloty (ZLOE-tee, noun) – Polish monetary unit; a coin made of nickel, equaling 100 groszy. (In Polish, zloty originally meant “gold.”)
The wonderful AHD has a massive “currency table” that lists world money by country and by name; glancing at this, I’m foreseeing a future “Weird Words” devoted entirely to global currency: lilangeni, hryvnia, baht — and lots more!
Zoea (zoe-EE-yuh, noun; plural zoeae) – Larval form of crabs and certain other ten-legged crustaceans. From the Greek zoe, meaning “life” (i.e., zoo).
Zoysia (ZOY-shuh, noun) – With three alternate pronunciations (ZOY-zhyuh, ZOY-see-yuh, ZOY-zee-uh), this is a species of creeping grass native to Asia and New Zealand.
Zugzwang (TSOOK-tsvahng, noun) – “A situation in a chess game in which a player is forced to make an undesirable move.” From German, it combines terms meaning “move” and “compulsion.”
Zwieback (SWEE-back, noun) – Though often given to babies who are teething, zwieback is a type of sweet toasted bread eaten by all ages throughout much of Europe. A fairly common word, it has no less than five possible pronunciations; AHD lists the one I use (ZWHY-back) last in preference!
I’ve included this familiar word mostly so I can share some cool trivia: Many readers recognize its first syllable as the German number “two” (eins, zwie, drei, etc.); and we know that the Latin bi likewise means two. So biscuit and zwieback both mean exactly the same thing: “twice-cooked.” (Take the “k” sound of out “cooked” and you can hear it better — while back is just a different spelling of “bake.”) Gotta love it!
Zyzzyva (ZIZZ-uh-vuh, noun) – An American weevil often destructive to plants. This, as it happens, is the final listing in American Heritage; but a few lexicons, including Merriam-Webster’s Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, end instead with:
Zzz (pronounced zzz) – An interjection for the sound of sleeping.
Truly weird that this is offered an option for Scrabble, which has only one Z-tile; so you’d need two blanks to use the word. And believe me, any Scrabble rack with two blank tiles is going to yield lots better words — ones not likely to put the eager player to sleep!
And one final note for book-lovers (and word-lovers … and dictionary-lovers — like me): The next James V. Brown Library sale is slated for April 24-26.
Maybe I will Z you there.
