zadhttp://www.oed.com/dictionary/zad_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_usezad, n.
First published 1921; not fully revised

zadnoun

Obsolete exc. dialect.
  1. 1669–
    Name of the letter Z; hence (slang) applied to a thing or person of crooked form. (Cf. zard at izzard n. Forms.)
    1. 1669
      We may imagine it to have been anciently pronounced, as it is now by the Italians, Ds or Ts; and so to be called Zad from the Hebrew Tsadi: but yet..we..do as often call it Yzard.
      W. Holder, Elements of Speech 140
    2. 1725
      A meer Zad, used of any bandy-legg'd, crouch-back'd ..Person.
      New Canting Dictionary (at cited word)
    3. 1728
      Zad, crooked.
      Street-robberies, Consider'd 35
    4. 1778
      W is defined from its form only, not from its use; and Z zad, or izard is an appellation equally useless.
      N. B. Halhed, Grammar of Bengal Language 6
    5. 1810
      And how she sooth'd me, when with Study sad I labour'd on to reach the final Zad.
      G. Crabbe, Borough xviii. 238
    6. 1877
      A labouring man..said..at a night school, ‘I can't made a Zad.’
      Rep. & Trans. Devonshire Association vol. 9 141

zad, n. was first published in 1921; not fully revised.

zad, n. was last modified in March 2024.