Z
The Latin alphabet | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aa | Bb | Cc | Dd | ||
Ee | Ff | Gg | Hh | Ii | Jj |
Kk | Ll | Mm | Nn | Oo | Pp |
Rr | Ss | Tt | Uu | Vv | |
Ww | Xx | Yy | Zz |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/Z_cursiva.gif/220px-Z_cursiva.gif)
Z is the twenty-sixth (number 26) and last letter in the English alphabet. The small letter, z, is used as a lowercase consonant. Z is not used much. It is the most rarely used letter in the English language. The same letter of the Greek alphabet is named zeta.
How it is said
[change | change source]The letter is said as zed /ˈzɛd/. The first way of saying it comes from the Greek zeta. Even in American English, Z is given the nickname "zee" /ˈziː/, because it comes from a late 17th century English speech.[1]
Where it came from
[change | change source]Phoenician zayin |
Etruscan Z |
Greek zeta |
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Semitic
[change | change source]The name of the Semitic symbol was zayin and was the seventh letter. It might have meant "weapon". It could have helped form English and French's z.
Greek
[change | change source]The Greek form of Z was a close copy of the Phoenician symbol I. It stayed like this for a long time. The Greeks called it zeta, a new name made from the Greek letters eta (η) and theta (θ).
Etruscan
[change | change source]In Etruscan, Z may have been /ts/.
Latin
[change | change source]In Old Latin, /z/ (written s) became /r/ and the symbol for /z/ became useless. It was taken away from the alphabet by Appius Claudius Caecus, and a new letter, G, was put in.
In the 1st century BC, Z was put in the alphabet again at the end of the Latin alphabet. This was done to accurately represent the sound of the Greek zeta. The letter Z appeared only in Greek words, and is the only letter besides Y that the Romans took from Greek.
Meanings for Z
[change | change source]- In cartoons, Z means the sound of sleeping or snoring, like in "ZZZzzzz...".
- In particle physics, Z stands for the Z boson.
- In chemistry, Z stands for the atomic number.
References
[change | change source]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg/40px-Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- ↑ One early use of "zee": Lye, Thomas (1969) [2nd ed., London, 1677]. A new spelling book, 1677. Menston, (Yorks.) Scolar P. p. 24.
Zee Za-cha-ry, Zion, zeal