Zantippe. After the wife of Socrates, whose name has become proverbial for a bad-tempered spouse.
Zanzibar. A European inversion of the Arabic Ber-ez-Zuig, the coast of the Zangis, or Negroes.
Zeeland. Expresses the Dutch for “Sea-land,” land reclaimed from the sea.
Zenith City of the Unsalted Seas. Duluth, so called from its picturesque situation at the western extremity of the Great Lakes.
Zoroastrianism. The religious system of the “Parsees” or Fire-worshippers, introduced into Persia by Zoroaster circa B.C. 500.
Zounds. A corruption of “His Wounds,” or the Five Sacred Wounds on the Body of the Redeemer. This oath was first employed by John Perrot, a natural son of Henry VIII. Queen Elizabeth was much addicted to the exclamation “His Wounds,” but the ladies of her Court softened it into “Zounds” and “Zouterkins.”
Zurich. From the Latin Thuricum, in honour of Thuricus, the son of Theodoric, who rebuilt the city after it had been destroyed by Attila.
Zuyder Zee. Properly Zuider Zee, the Dutch for “Southern Sea,” relative to the North Sea or German Ocean.
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