Also 5–6 zedde. [a. F. zède (= It. zeta, † zette, Sp. zeta, zeda), ad. L. zēta, a. Gr. ζῆτα.]
1. Name of the letter Z.
In quot. 1605 applied contemptuously to a person.
14[?]. Ms. Reg. 17, B. 1, f. 14b, in Mod. Lang. Rev. (1911), VI. 442. For as miche as þe carect yogh, þat is to seie ·ȝ· is figurid lijk a zed, þerfore alle þe wordis of þis table þat biginnen wiþ þat carect, ben set in zed, which is þe laste lettre of þe a·b·c.
14[?]. Maundev. (MS. Laud 699 f. 37). Too lettres … þat is to sey ·y· [i.e. þ] & ·z· which is called thorn and zedde.
1582. Mulcaster, 1st Pt. Elem., xxiii. 161. Hence cummeth it that so manie zeds in our tung are herd, and so few sene, for dexteritie and spede in the currantnesse of writing.
1605. Shaks., Lear, II. ii. 69. Thou whoreson Zed, thou vnnecessary letter.
1755. Johnson, Dict., Gram., Z … [Name] zed, more commonly izzard or uzzard, that is, shard.
1817. Err. Pron. Lond., 38. Children … often call this letter Izard.… They should be taught to pronounce it Zed.
1882. E. A. Freeman, in Longman’s Mag., I. 94. The name … given to the last letter of the alphabet … in New England is always zee; in the South it is zed.
1893. [see Z 2].
2. Zed-bar, also simply zed = Z-bar: see Z 2.
a. 1891. Engineer, LXXI. Advts. p. xxxviii. (Cent. Dict.). Angles, Zeds, Channels, Beams, Bars.
1892. Daily News, 9 Sept., 6/1. The improved sections of steel known as channel and zed bars.
