In the English alphabet, “z” (pronounced “zee” in some English dialects and “zed” in others) is the final letter. The etymologies of some words beginning with “z” are described below.
Zany:
The word “zany” came into English through the Italian theater. In the 16th century commedia dell’arte featured comedies which were improvised from standard situations and a set of stock characters. Zanni was a character who tried, usually rather feebly, to mimic the antics of a clown. Zanni, in the Venetian and Lombardic dialects of Italian, is a variant of Gianni which is a familiar form of Giovanni (John).
“Zany” is first recorded in English in William Shakespear’s Love’s Labours Lost (1594). In the 17th century, “zany” was broadened to mean “buffoon” and in the mid-19th century it began to be used as an adjective.
Zeal:
The word “zeal” came into English from the Latin “zēlus” which is from the Greek “zēlos” meaning “fervor, jealousy.” The Medieval Latin “zēlōsus” also forms the basis of the English “zealous” and “jealous.”
Zenith:
The word “zenith” has its origins in the Arabic “samt arrās” which means “path over head.” The Arabic “samt” means “path” and in Old Spanish this became “zenith.” Spain was, of course, a Muslim country and a center for higher education. As knowledge of mathematics and astronomy diffused out of Spain into Europe, “zenith” became “the point in the sky directly overhead.”
“Zenith” entered English in the 14th century. By the end of the 17th century it had acquired the meaning of “the upper regions of the heavens” and “the highest point reached in the heavens by a celestial body.”
Arabic also gave English “nadir” referring to the point diametrically opposite the zenith and directly beneath the observer. The etymological origin of “nadir” is the Arabic “nazīr” meaning “opposite.”
The plural of the Arabic word “samt” is “as-samt” which became “azimuth” in English and was used to refer to the arc of the heavens extending from the zenith to the horizon.”
Zero:
Like many terms in mathematics, “zero” comes from Arabic. In Arabic “sifr” meant “empty,” which then became the Old Spanish “zero” and diffused into English with the renaissance of mathematics coming from the Muslim universities in Spain. The Arabic word “sifr” comes from the Sanscrit “sūnya-” which also meant “empty.” The Arabic “sifr” was also used to form the English word “cipher.”
Zodiac:
The origin of “zodiac” can be found in the Greek “zódion” which originally referred to a “carved figure of an animal.” As “zóidakós kúklos” it referred to a “circle of carved figures” which represented the twelve figures or signs of the divisions of a band around the earth which had been described by the ancient Babylonians. From the Greek it became the Latin “zōdiacus” and the French “zodiaque” and English, as it has often done, took it from the French.
Zombie:
During the 20th century, movies, novels, television, and other popular media began to create an image of something they called “zombie” which were reanimated (meaning formerly dead) people who shuffled around in a mindless fashion. In reality, the word “zombie” comes from the West African Kongo, Kimbundu, and Tshiluba languages: “nzambi” meant “god” and “zumbi” meant “fetish.” The word diffused with the slave trade into the Caribbean and the American south. In the American south, English-speaking people heard the word in association with the Voodoo religion (do not confuse this with the Hollywood version of voodoo). Not understanding either “zombie” or “voodoo,” some writers let their imaginations run wild to come up the current image of zombies.
In some of the West African voodoo religions, Zombie was the Python God.