zetacismhttp://www.oed.com/dictionary/zetacism_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_usezetacism, n.
Revised 2018

zetacismnoun

  1. 1860–
    The changing of another sound into the phoneme /z/ ; frequent use of this phoneme in spoken language. Also: use of the Greek letter ζ or Latin letter z in place of another letter in written language.
    1. 1860
      On zetacism and the pronunciation of the Greek and Latin Z.
      L. Tafel & R. L. Tafel, Latin Pronunc. & Latin Alphabet 157 (heading)
    2. 1889
      The tendency to Zetacism among the Ionians may be due to an admixture with the pre-Aryan population.
      I. Taylor, Origin of Aryans v. §1. 260
    3. 1905
      The reader may well be glad to be spared any German misprints, for the ‘Zetacism’ of the new official spelling of such words as ‘Okzident’ and ‘Zölibat’ is sufficiently trying.
      Dublin Review July 190
    4. 1966
      Schönfeld's Germanisch -þ- an der mittleren Elbe..deduced from dialectical zetacism and lambdacism of Germc. -þ-, [etc.].
      Year's Work Modern Lang. Studies vol. 28 427
    5. 2014
      The Italian text's zetacism..bears an uncanny, unhome-ly resemblance to contemporary features of Venetian and Ligurian dialects.
      J. Scappettone, Killing Moonlight: Modernism in Venice iv. 259

Originally published as part of the entry for zeta, n.¹

zetacism, n. was revised in June 2018.

zetacism, n. was last modified in July 2023.