Z

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 "ze" /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

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]

The Simple English Wiktionary has a definition for: z.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Z.

This short article can be made longer. You can help Wikipedia by adding to it.