Saturday, 30 April 2011

April A to Z blogging challenge Zed

Z is the 26th and final letter in the modern alphabet. It is pronounced zed in UK (sometimes zad) and zee in USA. Its older English name was izzard.

Z stems from the Greek zeta which originates from zayin, the seventh letter in the Semitic alphabet.

In mathematics z is the third unknown quantity in an algebraic expression. Descartes introduced x, y and z as symbols for unknown quantities in 1637.

In mediaeval times z was the symbol for 2000. 
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9 comments:

  1. Isabel Doyle30 April 2011 at 10:05

    congratulations - for your next trick I think you should do the Greek alphabet ...

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  2. Vanilla Mama30 April 2011 at 13:59

    Zeta - the end! This has fun!

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  3. RHYTHM AND RHYME30 April 2011 at 15:07

    Congratulations on the completion of the challenge, I enjoyed your Z word post.

    Thank you for your comment on mine , much appreciated,
    Yvonne.

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  4. Kay L. Davies30 April 2011 at 17:29

    Very interesting information about Z, Janice. In Spanish, Z is pronounced "setta" but I believe it is spelt "zeta" like the Greek, and I'll be darned if I can remember what it is in French.
    I remember "izzard" from somewhere, probably lore from the printing trade.
    Also interesting about Z for 2000, and I hadn't a clue about its mathematical use at all. (I am math-impaired.)
    — K

    Kay, Alberta, Canada
    An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

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  5. Misha Gerrick30 April 2011 at 19:40

    Interesting trivia! Congrats on getting to z, whichever way you want to pronounce it. :-P

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  6. Theresa Wiza30 April 2011 at 23:13

    Found you on the "surprise me" button. I too have been working on the challenge. Thanks for the lesson on Z. Please find my latest A-Z Challenge blogs here: http://myheartblogstoyou.blogspot.com/

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  7. Arlee Bird1 May 2011 at 02:28

    Some interesting z facts!
    Congratulations on making it to the end of the alphabet!


    Hope you'll join us for The A to Z Challenge Reflections Post on Monday May 2nd. An “A to Z Blog Challenge Winner’s Button” will also be available starting May 1st on the Tossing It Out site.

    Lee

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  8. Belle1 May 2011 at 17:58

    I didn't know all this about Z except that it is pronounced zed in Canada too. Izzard was an interesting way to say Z!

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  9. Janie2 May 2011 at 01:53

    Z is a difficult letter for a post, but you did a great job of finding interesting and little known facts about this 26th letter.

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