No one is quite sure where it comes from, but it may have been partly influenced by sneezy. ZneesyĪn 18th-century slang word for cold, frosty weather. ZizzĪs a noun, zizz is sparkle or vivacity, whereas as a verb, it can be used to mean “ to enliven.” 22. Zitellaĭerived from Italian, zitella is a 17th-century word for a young girl or maiden. ZinziberaceousĪlso spelled zingiberaceous, the adjective zinziberaceous specifically refers to plants in the Zinziberaceae family-or, in other words, it’s a fancy way of saying “gingery.” 20. ZigzaggeryĪ zigzagging course or route? That’s a zigzaggery. No one quite knows why, or where the word came from, but ziff is an old Australian slang word for a beard. If you’re zidle-mouthed then you’re wry-mouthed, or habitually hold your mouth to one side in a curious, indecisive fashion. Dickens was the master of the zeugma, thanks to fantastically descriptive sentences like “Miss Bolo rose from the table considerably agitated, and went straight home, in a flood of tears and a sedan-chair.” 16. ZeugmaĪ figure of speech in which one word is used in such a way that it refers to two others in the same sentence is called a zeugma (which is the Greek word for a yoke, in the sense of two things being linked together as one). Zelotypiaĭerived from the Greek word for “to strike,” zelotypia is a 17th-century word for what we would now more likely call jealousy. ZelatrixĪ zelatrix is a female zelator-namely, a zealous supporter or advocate. If zeitgeist literally means “time spirit” in German, then a zeitgeber is literally a “time-giver.” In biology, it refers to any cyclical, recurring event, like the changing of the seasons or the rising and setting of the sun, that provides an organism with a natural timeframe or cue. It derives from the name of the Ford Zephyr, a car apparently once popular among working-class South Africans. ZefĪ South African slang word describing anything trashy or commonplace. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests it might be a combination of “zippy” and “jazzy.” 11. Slang from the 1960s for something showy or colorful. ZawsterĪn old 18th-century word for a seamstress or dressmaker. ZawnĪn isolated sandy inlet or cave in a cliff on the coast is a zawn. It derives from a slang corruption of the name of Queen Alexandra, the wife and consort of King Edward VII. Zarnder was a hairstyle, popular in the 1900s, in which a woman wore loose ringlet of hair over one shoulder. Zanyism is literally the behavior or quality of being “zany” or clownish-or, in other words, horseplay or tomfoolery. ZamĪn old southwest English dialect word meaning “to heat something over a fire for a long time, but not to boil it.” 6. To “confuse by contradictory assertions,” according to the English Dialect Dictionary. Zaftigīorrowed into English from Yiddish (and descended from a German word meaning “juicy”), zaftig refers to a woman who is plump or curvaceous. ZackĪn old southern English dialect word meaning “to walk hesitantly.” (It's also Aussie slang for a sixpence.) 3. Both words are named for the town of Saverne in Alsace, eastern France, where a young cobbler was needlessly killed by a German soldier in 1912. To zabernize, meanwhile, is to oppress militarily. Zabernism is a German-origin word for the overuse or unnecessarily aggressive use of military power. So why not try using one of the 40 zazzy Z-words listed here? 1. It might be one of the least-frequently used letters in the English language (you can expect it to start less than 0.5 percent of the words in a standard dictionary), but the letter Z is responsible for some fantastic words, from zaptieh (that’s a Turkish police officer) and zardozi (a type of embroidery using metallic thread) to zambomba (a Spanish percussion instrument) and zalambdodont (a creature with V-shaped ridged molar teeth).Īs great as those words are, they’re not exactly the most useful of Z-words to drop into everyday conversation (depending, of course, on how many people with V-shaped molars you know).
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