Z
zabra, a small sailing vessel, in use in the Bay of Biscay; zabraes, pl.; Dekker, Wh. of Babylon, Works, ii. 256. Span. azábra, ‘a small sort of Bark us’d in some parts of Spain’; Zábra, ‘a sort of Vessel once us’d in Biscay from 100 to 200 Tun Burden, and serv’d for Fishing or Privateering, now laid aside’ (Stevens). Port, zabra (Roquette). See Stanford (s.v. Azabra).
zambra, a Moorish festival, with music and dancing; a festive dance. Dryden, Conquest of Granada, I, i. 1 (l. 11 from end). Span. zambra, ‘a Moorish dance’ (Stevens). ‘A la rigueur zambra signifie musique d’instruments à vent; on l’a appliqué à la danse parce que l’on danse au son des larigots et des flûtes’ (Cobarruvias). Zambra is from the Arabic root zamara, to play on a wind instrument, Dozy, Glossaire, 364.
zany, a subordinate buffoon, who mimicked the clown. Twelfth Nt. i. 5. 96; cp. L. L. L. v. 2. 463. Ital. ‘záne, the name of John in some parts of Lombardy, but commonly used for a silly John, a simple gull, or foolish Clown in a Play or Comedy, as a Jack pudding at the dancing of the ropes’ (Florio). See Stanford.
zany, to imitate apishly, to mimic. Fletcher, Queen of Corinth, i. 2 (Crates); Lover’s Progress, i. 1 (Clarinda).
zecchine, a gold coin, a ‘sequin’. Shirley, Gent. of Venice, i. 1 (Cornari); Gascoigne, ed. Hazlitt, i. 79. Ital. zecchino, a Venetian coin, deriv. of zecca, ‘a mint or place of coyning’ (Florio), Arab. sikka, coin; dâr as-sikka-t, a mint (Steingass).
zelant, a zealot. Bacon, Essay 3. Med. L. zelans; see Ducange (s.v. Zelare).
zelatour, a zealot, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, ch. 27. Med. L. zelator, ‘aemulator, inimicus’ (Ducange).
zernick, orpiment. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Surly). Arab. zernîkh, arsenic (Steingass), Pers. zernīχ, orpiment, yellow arsenic; from zar, gold. A word of Indo-European origin. See Academy (May 11, 1895, p. 427), and Horn’s Grundriss der neupersischen Etymologie (1893, § 691).
OXFORD: HORACE HART M.A.
PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY