From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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
.
The letter is said as
zed
. The first way of saying it comes from the
Greek
zeta
. Even in
American English
, Z is given the nickname "
zee
"
, because it comes from a late 17th century English speech.
[1]
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
.
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).
In
Etruscan
,
Z
may have been
/ts/
.
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.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Z
.
- ↑
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