"Z" Word Origins

ZIP code

English

ZIP is an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, the United States Post Office system introduced in 1963; the capitalisation reflects the acronym.

zipola

Origin

From zip + -ola.

zipped

Origin

From zip plus the past-tense/adjective ending -ed.

zipper

Origin · 1925

From zip plus -er. The name was originally a 1925 trademark registered by B.F. Goodrich for rubber-and-fabric boots, and later became a generic word for the fastener itself.

zippo

Origin

The "nothing" sense comes from zip plus -o; the lighter sense comes from the Zippo brand name, now often used generically.

zippy

Origin

From zip ("to move fast") plus the adjective-forming suffix -y.

Zips

German

Borrowed from German Zips, from Middle High German Cypis, Cypus, possibly from Old Hungarian Schypis (modern Szepes).

zit

German · 1960

Of uncertain origin, first recorded among North American teenagers in the 1960s; related informally to German Zitze ("nipple").

Zito

Italian

Borrowed from Italian Zito.

zloty

Polish

Borrowed from Polish złoty, literally "golden," from the same root as the word "gold."

zoar

Origin

From Zoar, mentioned in the Bible as the place where Lot fled with his wife and two daughters to escape death when Yahweh destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, from Biblical Hebrew צֹעַר (tso`ar, “insignificance, smallness”).

zod

Origin

Said to come from a playful mangling of the phrase "he's odd."

zodiac

Latin

From Old French zodiaque, from Latin zōdiacus, from Greek zōidiakós kúklos, literally "circle of little animals" — a nod to the animal-shaped constellations along that band of sky.

zodiacal

Origin

From Latin zōdiacus + -al. By surface analysis, zodiac + -al.

Zoe

Ancient Greek

From the Ancient Greek word for "life"; the philosopher Giorgio Agamben popularized this specific technical sense.

Zohar

Hebrew

Borrowed from Hebrew זֹהַר (“splendor, radiance”).

zohra

Origin

Borrowed from Arabic زُهْرَة (zuhra, “Venus”).

zoiks

Origin

Possibly from a shortening of gadzooks. Compare also yoicks.

zoinks

Origin

Popularized by the cartoon character Shaggy in Scooby-Doo, who used it as his catchphrase whenever something startled him.

Zoloft

Origin

A marketing coinage.

Zoltan

Arabic

From Hungarian Zoltán, from szultán (“sultan”), from Ottoman Turkish سلطان (sultan), from Arabic سُلْطَان (sulṭān, “ruler”). Doublet of sultan.

zombie

French

Traced through Haitian Creole zonbi and French zombi back to a Bantu language, related to Kongo nzambi ("god") and Kimbundu nzumbi ("ghost") — echoed in Caribbean folklore's "jumbie," a wandering spirit.

zomg

Origin

A variant of OMG, presumably from excited users accidentally hitting the Z key while attempting to press shift, or from conscious imitation of such excitement. The term is said to have been coined (likely in the early 2000s) by a Something Awful user named “Rick_Feynman”, in an ICQ chat between him and fellow user “Hannibal” (see also his Usenet message quoted below), though it was already in use before that. Usage of the term on the boards of Something Awful and 4chan has greatly contributed to its popularization.

zone

Latin

From Latin zōna, from Greek zṓnē ("girdle, belt") — originally describing a belt-like band, later applied to bands of climate or land.

zoned

Origin

From zone plus the adjective ending -ed.

zoning

Origin

From zone plus the noun-forming suffix -ing.

zoo

Origin

Clipping of zoological garden or zoological park, now the usual form. See zoology. * Sense 5 is a clipping of zoophile or zoophilia.

zooerastia

Origin

From zoo- + -erastia.

zooerasty

Origin

From zoo- + -erasty.

Zooey

Origin

Formed from "zoo" plus the adjective-forming suffix "-ey."

zookeeper

Origin

A compound of zoo and keeper — literally, one who "keeps" (looks after) the zoo's animals.

zoological

Origin

From zoology plus the adjective ending -ical.

zoologist

Origin

From zoology plus the agent suffix -ist.

zoology

Greek

From Greek zōîon ("animal") plus lógos ("study, knowledge") — a near-parallel formation to "biology."

zoom

Origin

Of uncertain origin, possibly related to Scots and dialectal English words like "soom" or "sweem," meaning to buzz, hum, or spin rapidly.

zooming

Origin

From zoom plus the noun-forming suffix -ing.

zoot

Origin

A shortened form of "zoot suit," itself likely a jazz-slang rhyme built on the word "suit."

zooted

Origin

From zoot + -ed.

Zorba

Origin

An arbitrary industry code name assigned by the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries.

zori

Origin

From Japanese 草履 (zōri).

zorro

Spanish · 1919

Borrowed from Spanish zorro ("fox") — also the name of the masked swordsman created by pulp writer Johnston McCulley in 1919.

zounds

Origin

Minced form of God's wounds, with reference to the wounds from Christ's crucifixion. Compare strewth, blimey, gadzooks, 'sblood, crikey.

zubenelgenubi

Origin

From Arabic الزُّبَانَى الْجَنُوبِيّ (az-zubānā l-janūbiyy, “the Southern Claw”).

zubeneschamali

Origin

Arabic الزُّبَانَى الشَّمَالِيّ (az-zubānā š-šamāliyy, “the Northern Claw”).

zucchini

Italian

From Italian zucchini, the plural of zucchino, a "little squash" — from zucca, meaning "pumpkin" or "gourd."

Zuckerberg

German

From German Zucker ("sugar") + Berg ("mountain") — literally "sugar mountain," a fairly common German-Jewish surname before it became strongly associated with the Facebook founder.

Zulu

Origin

From the Zulu people's own name for themselves, uMzulu, historically linked to a royal ancestor and traditionally said to relate to a word for "sky" or "heaven."

Zumba

Origin · 1990

A trademarked name created in the 1990s by Colombian dance instructor Beto Pérez. He originally wanted to call the workout "rumba," but that name was already taken by the Cuban music style, so he settled on the invented, similar-sounding "Zumba" instead.