One-Letter Words, a Dictionary (21 page)

Z IN PRINT AND PROVERB

1. (in literature)
“In the purple distance neatly scripted alphabet vultures with Zs for eyes soared in the thermals swirling over and around an alphabet volcano spewing what appeared to be incomplete, fractured sentences and clustered gobs of words that were half submerged in a river of blood red lava.”
—George C. Chesbro,
The Language of Cannibals

2. (in literature)
“Thou whoreson zed! / thou unnecessary letter!”
—William Shakespeare,
King Lear,
II.ii.65.

3. (in literature)
Z Was Zapped
is the name of a 1987 play in twenty-six acts, by Chris Van Allsburg.

4. (in literature)
As a high level of thought, reached via the near-genius ability to repeat every letter of the alphabet from A to Z accurately in order:
“How many men in a thousand million, he asked himself, reach Z after all?…One in a generation. Is he to be blamed then if he is not that one?”
—Virginia Woolf,
To the Lighthouse

5. (in literature)
As a letter of the alphabet with dynamic energy:
“[T]he letter Z has a dynamic energy to it, and it is the diagonal line connecting the two short horizontal lines that creates that energy.”
—Brenda Tharp,
Creative Nature & Outdoor Photography

6. (in literature)
“Z is lightning, the sign of God.”
—Victor Hugo, quoted in
ABZ
by Mel Gooding

7. (in film)
Alphabet Zelda
is a 2004 short film by Eva Saks about a little girl’s hunt for the letter Z. The film was created for the
Sesame Street
television program.

8. (in film)
Mind-altering radiation in the 2001 film
The Caveman’s Valentine.
[T]he solution makes perfect sense to a man who is wracked by “brain typhoons” caused by yellow
“Y-beams” and green “Z-beams” emanating from the spires of the Chrysler Building. Somewhere inside that landmark, a mysterious evil mastermind named Cornelius Gould Stuyvesant tracks and torments our hapless hero.
—CrankyCritic.com

9.
n.
A written representation of the letter.
Outside a late-spring rain was falling, and the
Crown Z Mill, as we left it in our wake, was doing its best to turn the gray dawn grayer.
—David James Duncan,
The Brothers K

10.
n.
A device,
such as a printer’s type, for reproducing the letter.

ASLEEP AMID FLOWERS

11.
n.
Sleep.
“It’s going to be a long night, men. You wanna catch some z’s, work it out with your buddy.”
—Al Franken,
Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot

12.
n.
A buzzing sound,
as from an insect.
Flying bee z z z z.
—Sue Lloyd, “Jolly Phonics” Workbook 5

STAYING IN PLACE

13.
n.
The third in order or class when x is made the first.
The first of these major parts is divided into three sections, of which the first considers X, the second considers Y, and the third considers Z.
—Charles Van Doren,
How to Read a Book

14.
n.
Something arbitrarily designated Z
(e.g., a person, place, or other thing).
It is a gift, from X, Y, Z, to the Hospital.
—Lewis Carroll,
Sylvie and Bruno Concluded

15.
n.
The twenty-sixth in a series.
Nicknamed Scheme Z because it was the twenty-sixth alternative explored for the crossing, its engineers and Salvucci hoped it would be the last.
—Thomas P. Hughes,
Rescuing Prometheus: Four Monumental
Projects That Changed the Modern World

MISCELLANEOUS

16.
n.
The end,
as in “from A to Z.”
“They have fallen past Z,” said old Johanna. “They have disappeared from the human alphabet.”
—John Irving,
The World According to Garp.
Here the speaker is giving a letter rating to a displeasing establishment.
“That’s me to the letter Z.” Daniel showed all his pink gums in a wide smile. Of course he could not read and knew of the letter Z only by repute, which made
Hal smile inwardly.
—Wilbur A. Smith,
Monsoon
Scientific advance was once thought of as a march toward Z, but the twentieth century spoiled the sequence. Instead of moving to the next letter, ideas kept cropping up that required a whole different alphabet. The universe turned out to be fundamentally unknowable in some of the areas we most wanted to learn about. Z faded out to infinity.
—Charles Wohlforth,
The Whale and the Supercomputer: On the Northern Front of Climate Change

17.
n.
Any spoken sound represented by the letter.
The sound vibration of the consonant Z means “as above, so below, heaven and earth.”
—Joseph E. Rael,
Tracks of Dancing Light: A Native American
Approach to Understanding Your Name

18.
n.
The twenty-sixth letter of the alphabet.
[T]he low craft and chicanery characteristic of z.
—William H. Gass,
The Tunnel
In 1969 [contemporary artist Don] Driver held an exhibition in which the title of every work began with the letter Z. That choice of letter seems even more perfect three decades later…. [H]is best works, in their absurd beauty, are still most at home at the far end of the alphabet.
—Justin Paton, “The Alphabet According to Don Driver”
If she could be any letter of the alphabet she wanted to be, I said, which letter would she choose. The answer she gave me was so faint that I had to bend down to hear. It was the letter Z. She wanted to be the
last
letter, in other words.
—Frederick Buechner,
Telling Secrets

19.
n.
Someone called Z.
Dr. Z had made his dubious contribution—and he was gone.
—Oscar Levant,
The Memoirs of an Amnesiac
Bernstein printed the letter Z on the top sheet of a blue memo pad; X had been retired with the
Bookkeeper. “My boss calls it a whitewash,” said Z.
—Carl Bernstein,
All the President’s Men

20.
n.
Something having the shape of a Z.
Uncle Willie used to sit like a giant black Z.
—Maya Angelou,
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
I awoke a little before seven, cuddled up to my wife
Lillian, who was accordioned up into a Z in the bed beside me.
—Luke Rhinehart,
The Dice Man

21.
n.
An unknown thing.

22.
n.
A medieval Roman numeral for 2,000.

23.
n.
The twenty-sixth section in a piece of music.

24.
n.
Z bar:
a metal construction unit with a Z-shaped cross-section.

25.
n.
Z beam:
a metal or wood construction unit with a Z-shaped cross-section.
New z-beam construction offers an unparalleled frame structure.
—Dave Mattern, HorseTrainerWorld.com

26.
n.
Z crank:
a crank shaped like the letter Z.
Z cranks are manufactured to tighter specs than most American made cranks.
—“Twin Turbo Zs of Dallas,” ttzd.com

27.
n.
Z twist:
a type of yarn that has been spun clockwise so that the slope of fibers resembles a Z.
Nurdane could feel them watching her work, studying the turn of her fingers, the way her left hand fed the wool into the spindle while her right rotated it clockwise, making a Z-twist with the yarn.
—Holly Payne,
The Virgin’s Knot

28.
n.
A European automotive lamp with a Z-shaped light pattern.
I have had night vision problems for years and have, in the past, upgraded my sealed beam headlights to bulb type “Z” beams.
—Charlie S., RealCarAudio.com

SCIENTIFIC MATTERS

29.
n.
In the Cartesian coordinate system, the depth axis of a three-dimensional space.
It is common to label the axis representing the width of a three-dimensional space with the letter X, the height axis with the letter Y, and the depth axis
with the letter Z.
—Isaac Victor Kerlow,
The Art of
3-D Computer Animation and Effects, Third Edition

30.
n.
(physics)
Atomic number.

31.
n.
(electronics)
Impedance.
Sometimes, the capital letter Z is used in place of the word “impedance” in general discussions [of electronics].
—Stan Gibilisco,
Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics

32.
n.
(astronomy)
Zenith distance.

33.
n.
(astronomy)
Redshift.
Astronomers use the letter z to denote redshift.
—Roger A. Freedman,
Universe

34.
n.
The vertical component of the total intensity of a magnetic field, measured in units of nanoTesla.
The Earth’s magnetic field intensity is roughly between 25,000 and 65,000 nT.

35.
n.
A hypothetical explosive,
vastly more powerful than the A-bomb and H-bomb.
[W]e could never be certain that a future device, let us call it a Z-bomb, with an even stronger blast, would destroy the beaker.
—Peter Mitchell,
Psychology of Childhood