za, n.

za
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/za_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1986; not fully revised

# zanoun

## Earlier version

- za in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun za mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun za. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

This word is used in U.S. English.

#### Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

### How common is the noun za?

About 1occurrence per million words in modern written English

2017 | 0.18
2018 | 0.18
2019 | 0.17
2020 | 0.2
2021 | 0.21
2022 | 0.28
2023 | 0.3
2024 | 0.35

### How is the noun za pronounced?

#### British English

/zɑː/
zah

#### U.S. English

/zɑ/
zah

### Where does the noun za come from?

Earliest known use

1960s

The earliest known use of the noun za is in the 1960s.

OED's earliest evidence for za is from around 1968–70, in Current Slang.

za is formed within English, by clipping or shortening.

Etymons: pizza n.

### Nearby entries

1. 5-methylcytosine, n. 1903–
2. 70-year-old, n. & adj. 1832–
3. 73, n. 1855–
4. 78, n. 1949–
5. 800 number, n. 1971–
6. 900 number, n. 1977–
7. 911, n. 1968–
8. 999, n. 1937–
9. Z, n. Old English–
10. 'Z, adj.
11. za, n.1968–
12. zaatar, n. 1917–
13. zabaglione, n. 1899–
14. zabernism, n. 1916–21
15. zabernize, v. 1914
16. zabra, n. 1523–
17. zabuton, n. 1879–
18. zac, n. 1898–
19. 'zackly | 'zactly, adv. 1886–
20. zad, n. 1669–
21. Zadokite, n. & adj. 1910–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by clipping or shortening.
Etymon: pizza n.
Abbreviation of pizza n.

## Meaning & use

U.S. slang.

1. 1968–
   = pizza n.
   1. 1968–70

      > Za.., pizza.

      Current Slang (University South Dakota) vol. 3–4 140
   2. 1980

      > You can go for 'za, burgers, and ice cream without signing out.

      L. Birnbach et al., Official Preppy Handbook 44/2
   3. 1983

      > One of the boys called up and asked the parlor to bag the za (meaning ‘cancel the pizza’).

      Verbatim vol. 9 iv. 1/1
   4. 1984

      > In surveying my classes for campus slang I learned that pizza is referred to as za and to get or eat a pizza is to do a za.

      American Speech vol. 59 89
   baking U.S. English colloquial and slang
   1. pizza 1825–
      A savoury dish of Italian origin, consisting of a flat, usually round base of dough, baked with a topping of tomatoes, cheese, and any of various…
   2. pizzelle 1912–
      A type of fried, often stuffed, dumpling. Also: a small pizza.
   3. pizza alla Napoletana 1935–
      Pizza made in the traditional Neapolitan style, with a topping of tomatoes, mozzarella, and anchovies.
   4. Napoletana 1950–
      Cookery. A type of pizza consisting traditionally of tomatoes, anchovies, and (sometimes) mozzarella cheese.
   5. pizzetta 1954–
      A small pizza with a very thin crust.
   6. za 1968–
      = pizza, n.
   7. white pizza 1972–
      Pizza made without tomatoes or tomato products.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zɑː/
zah

### U.S. English

/zɑ/
zah

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- ɬrhingyll
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛtl/ but /ˈpɛtl̩i/.

##### Vowels

- iːfleece
- ihappy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- atrap, bath
- ɑːstart, palm, bath
- ɒlot
- ɔːthought, force
- ʌstrut
- ʊfoot
- uːgoose
- əletter
- əːnurse
- ɪənear
- ɛːsquare
- ʊəcure
- eɪface
- ʌɪpride
- aʊmouth
- əʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ãgratin
- ɒ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)

##### Other symbols

- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye*
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

* /d/ also represents a 'tapped' /t/ as in

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛd(ə)l/ but /ˈpɛdl̩i/.

##### Vowels

- ifleece, happy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- ætrap, bath
- ɑlot, palm, cloth, thought
- ɑrstart
- ɔcloth, thought
- ɔrnorth, force
- ʊfoot
- ugoose
- əstrut, comma
- ərnurse, letter
- ɪ(ə)rnear
- ɛ(ə)rsquare
- ʊ(ə)rcure
- eɪface
- aɪpride
- aʊmouth
- oʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ɑ̃gratin
- æ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)

##### Other symbols

- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

Simple text respell breaks words into syllables, separated by a hyphen. The syllable which carries the primary stress is written in capital letters. This key covers both British and U.S. English Simple Text Respell.

##### Consonants

b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w and z have their standard English values

- gguy
- jjay
- yyore
- chchore
- khloch
- shshore
- ththaw
- dhthee
- zhbeige

##### Vowels

- atrap
- ahpalm
- airsquare
- arstart
- arrcarry (British only)
- awthought
- ayface
- a(ng)gratin
- edress
- eefleece
- eerdeer
- errmerry
- ikit
- ighpride
- irrmirror
- olot (British only)
- ohgoat
- oogoose
- oorcure
- orforce
- orrsorry (British only)
- owmouth
- oyvoice
- o(ng)salon
- ustrut
- uhletter
- urnurse
- urrhurry
- uufoot

## Forms

### Variant forms

Also 'za.

## Frequency

za typically occurs about once per million words in modern written English.

za is in frequency band 5, which contains words occurring between 1 and 10 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands

Frequency data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.

### Frequency of za, n., 1960–2010

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Historical frequency series are derived from Google Books Ngrams (version 2), a data set based on the Google Books corpus of several million books printed in English between 1500 and 2010.

The overall frequency for a given word is calculated by summing frequencies for the main form of the word, any plural or inflected forms, and any major spelling variations.

For sets of homographs (distinct entries that share the same word-form, e.g. mole, n.¹, mole, n.², mole, n.³, etc.), we have estimated the frequency of each homograph entry as a fraction of the total Ngrams frequency for the word-form. This may result in inaccuracies.

Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the Google Books corpus.

Decade | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
1960 | 1.4
1970 | 1.4
1980 | 1.3
1990 | 1.2
2000 | 1.0
2010 | 0.98

### Frequency of za, n., 2017–2024

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Modern frequency series are derived from a corpus of 20 billion words, covering the period from 2017 to the present. The corpus is mainly compiled from online news sources, and covers all major varieties of World English.

Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the corpus.

Period | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
2017 | 0.18
2018 | 0.18
2019 | 0.17
2020 | 0.2
2021 | 0.21
2022 | 0.28
2023 | 0.3
2024 | 0.35

za, n. was first published in 1986; not fully revised.

za, n. was last modified in July 2023.