zed
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English zed, zedde, zede, from Old French zede, from Late Latin zeta, from Ancient Greek ζῆτα (zêta), from Hebrew zayin with influence from beta, eta and theta. Letter had rare nonstandard usage in Old English, such as in bezt, where it represented "ts" (compare the German, Italian, and Finnish pronunciation of Z). For the sleep sense, see zzz. The zombie sense comes from the initial letter. Doublet of zeta. Cognate to Spanish zeta, German Zett, French zède, Italian zeta, and perhaps Portuguese zê.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
zed (plural zeds) (chiefly Commonwealth)
- The name of the Latin-script letter Z.
- 2021, Pat Manser, More Than Words: The Making of the Macquarie Dictionary, Sydney: Macquarie Dictionary, page 298:
- Zzz...With all those ʻzedsʼ I'll be sending you to sleep.
- (in combination) Something Z-shaped.
- zed-bar
- (colloquial, usually in the plural) Sleep.
- I'm going to go get some zeds.
- (slang) A zombie.
- A horde of zeds began to shuffle into the shopping mall.
Synonyms[edit]
- (all): zee (US, Philippines, Newfoundland)
- (letter): izzard (Scotland)
- (sleep): zee (Canada) (more common)
Derived terms[edit]
Descendants[edit]
- → Greek: ζεντ (zent)
- → Hindi: ज़ेड (zeḍ)
- → Japanese: ゼット (zetto), ゼッド (zeddo)
- → Korean: 제드 (jedeu)
- → Marathi: जेड (jeḍ)
- → Russian: зэд (zɛd)
- → Thai: แซด (sɛ̂t)
- → Welsh: sèd
Translations[edit]
See also[edit]
- (Latin-script letter names) letter; a, bee, cee, dee, e, ef, gee, aitch, i, jay, kay, el, em, en, o, pee, cue, ar, ess, tee, u, vee, double-u, ex, wye, zee / zed
Verb[edit]
zed (third-person singular simple present zeds, present participle zedding, simple past and past participle zedded) (chiefly Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, South Africa)
- (intransitive, informal) To sleep or nap. (Compare zzz, catch some z's.)
- 1991, Jim Cartwright, Bed:
- Zedding hogs. Sleep sippers and spitters. Look at 'em cooking in their own snoring heat. One nose after another.
- 1992, David Robins, Tarnished vision: crime and conflict in the inner city:
- I guess I must have zedded, for I find a police officer, the same one that nicked me, shaking me.
- 2007, Polly Williams, The Yummy Mummy:
- "Zedding away." "God, I was having the most awful dream. That you'd got lost by the sea and I couldn't find you and something was chasing me, me and Evie."
- (intransitive, rare) To zigzag; to move with sharp alternating turns.
- 1931, Reginald Rankin, The Collected Works of Lt. Colonel Sir Reginald Rankin:
- We were zedding hell-bells up the hill towards Cervione, with a bank of road metal and a precipice on our left...
- 1994, Tibor Fischer, The thought gang:
- Licking his lips, his hand zedded on my thigh and he commented, penetratingly, that it wasn't pussy, but that driving the unmade road wasn't at all bad.
See also[edit]
Middle English[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
Adjective[edit]
zed
Etymology 2[edit]
Noun[edit]
zed
- Alternative form of seed (“seed”)
Old Czech[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Inherited from Proto-Slavic *zidъ.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
zed f
Declension[edit]
singular | dual | plural | |
---|---|---|---|
nominative | zed | zdi | zdi |
genitive | zdi | zďú | zdí |
dative | zdi | zedma | zdem |
accusative | zed | zdi | zdi |
vocative | zdi | zdi | zdi |
locative | zdi | zďú | zdech |
instrumental | zďú | zedma | zedmi |
See also Appendix:Old Czech nouns and Appendix:Old Czech pronunciation.
Derived terms[edit]
Descendants[edit]
- Czech: zeď
Further reading[edit]
- Jan Gebauer (1903–1916), “zed”, in Slovník staročeský (in Czech), Prague: Česká grafická společnost "unie", Česká akademie císaře Františka Josefa pro vědy, slovesnost a umění
Yola[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
From Middle English soden, sode (“seethed”, past participle of sethen), with the vowel taken from other forms of the verb.
Adjective[edit]
zed
Etymology 2[edit]
Verb[edit]
zed
- simple past tense of zey (“to say”)
- 1867, “CASTEALE CUDDE'S LAMENTATION”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 5:
- Hea zed mee cuck vlew in a aare.
- He said my cock flew into the air.
References[edit]
- Jacob Poole (1867), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, page 81 & 104
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Late Latin
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English terms derived from Hebrew
- English doublets
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɛd
- Rhymes:English/ɛd/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Latin letter names
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with usage examples
- English colloquialisms
- English slang
- English verbs
- British English
- Australian English
- New Zealand English
- Canadian English
- Irish English
- South African English
- English intransitive verbs
- English informal terms
- English terms with rare senses
- English terms derived from the shape of letters
- English three-letter words
- en:Zombies
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English adjectives
- Kentish Middle English
- Middle English nouns
- Old Czech terms inherited from Proto-Slavic
- Old Czech terms derived from Proto-Slavic
- Old Czech terms with IPA pronunciation
- Old Czech lemmas
- Old Czech nouns
- Old Czech feminine nouns
- Old Czech nouns with actual gender different from declined gender
- Old Czech feminine i-stem nouns
- Old Czech nouns with reducible stem
- zlw-ocs:Walls and fences
- Yola terms inherited from Middle English
- Yola terms derived from Middle English
- Yola lemmas
- Yola adjectives
- Yola terms with quotations
- Yola non-lemma forms
- Yola verb forms