Defn: Aware; wary. [Obs.] "Be ywar, and his way shun." Piers Plowman.
YWIS Y*wis", adv. Etym: [OE. ywis, iwis, AS. gewis certain; akin to D. gewis, G. gewiss, and E. wit to know. See Wit to know, and Y-.]
Defn: Certainly; most likely; truly; probably. [Obs. or Archaic]
"Ywis," quod he, "it is full dear, I say." Chaucer.
She answered me, "I-wisse, all their sport in the park is but a
shadow to that pleasure that I find in Plato." Ascham.
A right good knight, and true of word ywis. Spenser.
Note: The common form iwis was often written with the prefix apart from the rest of the word and capitalized, as, I wis, I wisse, etc. The prefix was mistaken for the pronoun, I and wis, wisse, for a form of the verb wit to know. See Wis, and cf. Wit, to know. Our ship, I wis, Shall be of another form than this. Longfellow.
Z Z (ze; in England commonly, and in America sometimes, zêd; formerly, also, îz"zêrd)
Defn: Z, the twenty-sixth and last letter of the English alphabet, is a vocal consonant. It is taken from the Latin letter Z, which came from the Greek alphabet, this having it from a Semitic source. The ultimate origin is probably Egyptian. Etymologically, it is most closely related to s, y, and j; as in glass, glaze; E. yoke, Gr. yugum; E. zealous, jealous. See Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 273, 274.
ZA
Za, n. (Min.)
Defn: An old solfeggio name for B flat; the seventh harmonic, as heard in the or æolian string; — so called by Tartini. It was long considered a false, but is the true note of the chord of the flat seventh. H. W. Poole.
ZABAISM; ZABISM
Za"ba*ism, Za"bism, n.
Defn: See Sabianism.