zaftig
[ZAHF-tig]
Having a full rounded figure; pleasingly plump.
Example:
The Flemish painters were masters of the oil medium, rendering zaftig beauties, robust burghers, hunting scenes, and allegorical subjects with subtle interplays of light and color.
Explanation, etymology:
"Real women have curves," as a 2002 movie title proclaimed. They are pleasingly plump, full-figured, shapely, womanly, curvy, curvaceous, voluptuous, statuesque. They are, in a word, zaftig. "Zaftig" has been juicing up English since the 1930s. It comes from the Yiddish "zaftik," which means "juicy" or "succulent" and which in turn derives from "zaft," meaning "juice" or "sap."


zeedonk
A cross between a zebra and a donkey.
Example:
Adam the zeedonk can be seen at Groombridge Place Gardens near Tunbridge Wells - and is thought to be one of only two in the UK.
Etymology:
"Zeedonk" = "zebra" + "donkey".

zeitgeber
[TSYTE-gay-ber]
an environmental agent or event (as the occurrence of light or dark) that provides the stimulus setting or resetting a biological clock of an organism
Example:
Light is known to be a zeitgeber that helps to keep both plants and animals on their normal daily and seasonal schedules.
Etymology, explanation:
"Zeitgebers" are nature's alarm clocks - both biologically and etymologically. The word "zeitgeber" derives from a combination of two German terms, "Zeit," which means "time," and "Geber," which means "giver," so a "zeitgeber" is literally a "time giver." In nature, zeitgebers tend to be cyclic or reoccurring patterns that help keep the body's circadian rhythms operating in an orderly way. For plants and animals, the daily pattern of light and darkness and the warmer and colder temperatures between day and night serve as zeitgebers, cues that keep organisms functioning on a regular schedule. For humans, societally imposed cycles, such as the schedule of the work or school day and regular mealtimes, can become zeitgebers as well.


zeitgeist
[TSYT-guyst; ZYT-guyst; TSYTE-ghyste]
(Often capitalized)
The spirit of the time; the general intellectual and moral state or temper characteristic of an era.
Examples:
1) The best writers of that predawn era were originals who had the zeitgeist by the tail. (Gary Giddins, "Visions of Jazz: The First Century")
2) As most critics and all professors of cultural theory note, Madonna is nothing if not a skilled reader of the zeitgeist. ("Techno 'rave' just the same old Madonna", Chicago Sun-Times, March 3, 1998)
3) Besides, the zeitgeist seems to be working against any hope of Hormel officials to limit...the usage of [the word] 'spam' on the Web. ("Gracious Concession on Internet 'Spam' ", New York Times, August 17, 1998)
4) Like other figures who seem, in retrospect, to have been precociously representative of their times, Kerouac was not simply responding to the Zeitgeist, but to the peculiarly twisted facts of his own upbringing. ("Jack Kerouac: The Beat Goes On", New York Times, December 30, 1979)
5) Uncle Jerry reminisced about the free love and political and social activism that were all prominent in the zeitgeist of the 1960s.
Etymology:
Scholars have long maintained that each era has a unique spirit, a nature or climate that sets it apart from all other epochs. In German, such a spirit is known as "Zeitgeist," from the German words "Zeit," meaning "time," and "Geist," meaning "spirit" or "ghost." Some writers and artists assert that the true zeitgeist of an era cannot be known until it is over, and several have declared that only artists or philosophers can adequately explain it. We don't know if that's true, but we do know that "zeitgeist" has been a useful addition to the English language since at least 1835.

zephyr

• Zephyrus

[ZEFF-er]
1. A breeze from the west.
2. A gentle breeze.
3. Any of various lightweight fabrics and articles of clothing.
Example:
There was not even a zephyr stirring; the dead noonday heat had even stilled the songs of the birds. (Mark Twain, "Tom Sawyer")
History, related words, more examples:
For centuries, poets have eulogized Zephyrus, the Greek god of the west wind, and his "swete breeth" (in the words of Geoffrey Chaucer). "Zephyrus," the personified west wind, eventually evolved into "zephyr," a word for a breeze that is westerly or gentle, or both. Breezy "zephyr" may have blown into English with the help of William Shakespeare, who used the word in his 1611 play "Cymbeline": "Thou divine Nature, thou thyself thou blazon'st / In these two princely boys! They are as gentle / As zephyrs blowing below the violet". Today, "zephyr" is also the sobriquet of a lightweight fabric and the clothing that is made from it.


zero-sum

• zero
• sum

[ZEER-oh-SUM]
Of, relating to, or being a situation (as a game or relationship) in which a gain for one side entails a corresponding loss for the other side
Example:
"Increasing spending for computer ed means cutting it somewhere else," explained the school superintendent. "It's a zero-sum situation."
History:
Does game theory sound like fun? It can be - if you are a mathematician or economist who needs to analyze a competitive situation in which the outcome is determined by the choices of the players and chance. Game theory was introduced by mathematician John von Neumann and economist Oskar Morgenstern in their 1944 book "The Theory of Games and Economic Behavior". In game theory, a zero-sum game is one, such as chess or checkers, where each player has a clear purpose that is completely opposed to that of the opponent. In economics, a situation is zero-sum if the gains of one party are exactly balanced by the losses of another and no net gain or loss is created. (Such situations are rare.)


zeroth
[ZEE-roath]
Being numbered zero in a series; of, relating to, or being a zero.
Example:
Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov's Zeroth Law for robots - "A robot may not harm humanity" - supersedes his First Law disallowing a robot to harm an individual human being.
Etymology:
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to use "zeroth," but the word, which was coined by physicists over a hundred years ago, does often show up in scientific contexts. It comes from "zero," which is itself from Arabic "sifr." These days "zeroth" is frequently used to suggest a level of importance that is even higher than first. Renowned Soviet physicist Lev Landau used "zeroth" this way when he classified all the famous physicists according to the relative value of their contributions to science. He put Niels Bohr and Max Planck, for example, right up there in the first class, and lesser-rated physicists in the second through fifth classes. Where did he think Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton belonged? They were unmatched, he felt, so they went in his zeroth class.


zest
Excitement, craving, desire, longing; spice, seasoning, flavoring.
Example:
Lucy had the decency and zest of a boarding school prefect, the kind the Lower Third would swoon over.
Etymology:
1674; in its Greek form, "zest" meant a piece of orange or lemon peel. And the addition of a slice of orange or lemon peel adds "zest" to a drink or dish - and makes us more enthusiastic about it. The English word is from Fr. "zeste" ("piece of orange or lemon peel used as a flavoring") of unknown origin. Sense of "thing that adds flavor" is 1709; that of "keen enjoyment" first attested 1791.


zibeline
[ZIB-uh-leen]
A soft lustrous wool fabric with mohair, alpaca, or camel's hair.
Example:
She tops white zibeline pants with a brown and white check hunting jacket and brandy silk scarf. ("House Beautiful", October 1, 2000)
History, more examples:
Though zibeline is woven from the hair of alpacas, camels, or Angora goats, its name actually traces back to a Slavic word for the sable, a small mammal related to the weasel. The Slavic term was adopted into Old Italian, and from there it passed to Middle French, then on to English in the late 1600s. English "zibeline" originally referred to the sable or its fur, but in the 1890s it developed a second sense, applying to a soft, smooth, slightly furry material woven from a mixture of animal hairs. It's especially suited to women's suits and coats, or, as a fashion columnist in the December 6, 1894 issue of "Vogue" observed, "Zibeline ... makes an exceedingly pretty, warm theatre cloak, not too fine to be crushed into the small one-chair space."


ziggurat
[ZIG-uh-rat]
An ancient Mesopotamian temple tower consisting of a lofty pyramidal structure built in successive stages with outside staircases and a shrine at the top; also: a structure or object of similar form.
Example:
The [dietary] guidelines will be turned into something like the familiar food pyramid. The new pyramid could be a circle or a ziggurat. (Richard Knox, NPR News, January 12, 2005)
History:
French professor of archaeology Francois Lenormant spent a great deal of time poring over ancient Assyrian texts. In those cuneiform inscriptions, he recognized a new language, now known as Akkadian, which proved valuable to the understanding of a civilization that goes back 5,000 years. Through his studies, he became familiar with the Akkadian word for the towering Assyrian temples: "ziqqurratu." In 1877 he came out with "Chaldean Magic", a scholarly exposition on the mythology of the Chaldeans, a people who lived 2700 years ago in what is now modern-day Iraq. In his work, which was immediately translated into English, he introduced the word "ziggurat" to the modern world in his description of the ziggurat of the palace of Khorsabad.


zillionaire

• zillion
• millionaire

[zil-yuh-NAIR]
An immeasurably wealthy person.
Examples:
1) Someday I'll be a zillionaire, just like Bill Gates! 2) It's hard to afford an apartment in the city these days, since all of the Internet zillionaires starting driving up the rents.
3) The mansion on the hill is owned by a zillionaire investment banker.
History, relaed words:
Since it rhymes with 'million' and 'billion, 'zillion' sounds huge, although it's not really a number. A 'zillionaire' is like a 'millionaire' or a 'billionaire', but with even more money. The word "millionaire" has been used in English to designate a person who is worth a million pounds or dollars, depending on the side of the ocean, since 1826. Englishmen borrowed the word straight from the French, whose millions, of course, were in francs. When "millionaire" no longer sufficed, English speakers coined "billionaire" in 1860. The turn of the century apparently brought a turn of fortune, for soon afterwards "multimillionaire" and "multibillionaire" were created. By the 1940s we needed "zillionaire," so it's a good thing we had coined "zillion" - for an indeterminately large number - the previous decade. "Zillion" and "zillionaire" aren't used in the most formal of writing, but they have found their way into plenty of serious publications.



zograscope
A device for viewing pseudo-stereoscopic images.
Example:
The zograscope was a table-top viewer consisting of a wooden stand supporting a hinged mirror and lens.
History:
The zograscope, consisting of a lens and mirror on a wooden stand, was a device of the eighteenth-century for viewing perspective prints, sometimes known as "vues d'optique". It was named the "Zograscope" for reasons lost to us, though it was also more variously and prosaically called a "diagonal mirror", an "optical pillar machine" or an "optical diagonal machine". The picture to be viewed was placed on a table and observed through a slanting mirror by means of a lens, large enough to see through with both eyes at once, whose curved edges distorted the image to give a surprisingly good sensation of depth. The surviving examples are elegant and highly collectible pieces of mahogany furniture, designed for the drawing rooms of well-to-do families who desired the latest in technology for their after-dinner entertainment, and who wanted, to quote a catalogue of 1784, to look at "remarkable Views of Shipping, eminent Cities, Towns, Royal Palaces, Noblemen and Gentleman's Seats and Gardens in Great Britain, France and Holland, Views of Venice, Florence, Ancient and Modern Rome, and the most striking public Buildings in and about London". These pictures were available at a price of a shilling plain or two shillings coloured, a substantial sum for the period.

zone out

• zone
• space out
• space

To lose all concentration; to slip out of normal consciousness, and have nothing on one's mind.
Example:
After working on a document for four hours straight, I zoned out in front of my computer screen.
Etymology:
A 'zone' is an area or place. If you 'zone out', you mentally drift away from the place you are currently, and go off into empty, dreamy space. Synonym: space out


zoomies

• zoomie
• zoomy

(army slang) The US Air Force personnel.
Etymology: They zoom around in the sky.


zoomorphic

• anthropomorphic
• metamorphosis

[zoh-uh-MOR-fik]
1. Having the form of an animal.
Example:
A number of zoomorphic constellations are present in the zodiac, including Aries the Ram, Capricorn the Goat, and Taurus the Bull.
2. Of, relating to, or being a deity conceived of in animal form or with animal attributes.
Etymology, related words:
The combining form "zo-," or "zoo-," derives from the Greek word "zoion," meaning "animal," and "-morphic" descends from the Greek "morphe," which means "form." There are other English words coming from "zoion," such as "zoo," "zoology," and "zoological." Other descendants of "morphe" exist in English as well, including "anthropomorphic," which means "having human form," and "metamorphosis," which refers to a change in form, structure, or substance caused especially by supernatural means. Combining these two forms gives us the adjective "zoomorphic," which first appeared in English in 1872 and is used to describe something that resembles an animal in form.


zorse
A cross between a zebra and a horse (a zebra stallion and a horse mare).
Example:
A horse has 64 chromosomes; the zebra has 44. The zorse that results from cross breeding will have a number of chromosomes that is somewhere in between.
Etymology:
"Zorse" = "zebra" + "horse".

zwieback
[SWEE-back]
a usually sweetened bread enriched with eggs that is baked and then sliced and toasted until dry and crisp
Example:
Our favorite cheesecake recipe calls for finely crushed zwieback crumbs for the crust.
History:
In ages past, keeping food fresh for any length of time required a lot of ingenuity, especially when one needed to carry comestibles on a long journey. One of the solutions people came up with for keeping bread edible for traveling was to bake it twice, thereby drying it and slowing the spoiling process. The etymology of "zwieback" reflects this baker's trick; it was borrowed from a German word that literally means "twice baked."


zzz
(chat, Internet) snoring