From Encyclopédie, (1751–65)
ZIMBI: Small shells that serve as everyday currency in the Kingdom of the Congo, as well as in a great number of other countries in Africa, along whose coasts they are found. We find a large quantity near an island that is opposite Luanda Saint Paolo; these are the most valued. These shells are a gold mine for the Portuguese, who hold the sole right to collect them, and that helps them purchase from Africans their most precious merchandise.
From A New and Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, Comprehending All the Branches of Human Knowledge (1763–4)
ZYTHOGALA: Beer posset, a drink recommended by [seventeenth century physician Thomas] Sydenham as good to be taken after a vomit, for allaying the acrimonious and disagreeable taste the vomit has occasioned, as well as to prevent gripes.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, First Edition (1768–71)
ZAPATA: A kind of feast or ceremony held in Italy, in the courts of certain princes, on St Nicholas’s day; wherein people hide presents in the shoes or slippers of those they would do honour to, in such a manner as may surprise them on the morrow when they come to dress.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, Second Edition (1777–84)
ZALEUCUS: A famous legislator of the Locrians, and the disciple of Pythagoras, flourished 500 years BC. He made a law by which he punished adulterers with the loss of both their eyes. His son offending was not absolved of this punishment, yet to show the father as well as the just law-giver, he put out his own right, and his son’s left eye. This example of justice and severity made so strong an impression on the minds of his subjects, that no instance was found of the commission of that vice during the reign of that legislator.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, Fifth Edition, (1815)
ZEST: The woody thick skin quartering the kernel of a walnut; prescribed by some physicians, when dried and taken with white wine, as a remedy against the gravel.*
From Abraham Rees’s Cyclopaedia (1819)
ZABDA: A large and pleasant town of Syria, chiefly, if not solely, inhabited by Christians, which furnishes 700 men fit for war. The town is sheltered by mountains, but the locusts are very destructive.
From The Children’s Encyclopedia (circa 1930)
ZEPPELIN: Although his name came to be hateful to humanity, Count Ferdinand Zeppelin, born at Manzell, near Lake Constance, in 1838, must have credit for the change from the helpless balloon to the successful lighter-than-air craft. He saw he must depart entirely from the pear-shaped gas-bag which had been for a century in use, and that he must have a vessel which would not crumple up when driven against the wind. It must be rigid and steerable. So, after many trials and failures which ultimately brought him almost to beggary, he devised the famous and infamous Zeppelin. Nothing else counts in the history of steerable airships. They are as much ahead of all rivals as our ocean liners are ahead of sailing ships.
From The Columbia Encyclopedia, Single Volume (1935)
ZAHAROFF, SIR BASIL: 1850–, International financier and munitions manufacturer. Zaharoff, often called ‘The Mystery Man of Europe’ because of the secrecy surrounding his personal and business affairs, was born of Greek parents in Anatolia, Turkey. He is generally considered the greatest armament salesman the world has known. For his services to the Allies in the World War, Zaharoff was knighted by George V and decorated by the French government. He has, however, been subjected to harsh criticism on the grounds that he fomented warfare, and has been accused of exerting a baneful influence on politics by secret intrigue through his association with European statesmen, notably Lloyd George.
From Children’s Britannica (1960)
ZOO, REGENT’S PARK: In Regent’s Park many of the animals, such as lions, wolves and monkeys, are kept in cages. Many people think that wild animals roam over very large spaces and will therefore feel cramped if they are shut up in cages. As long as they have enough space to move about in, most animals seem able to live quite comfortably in cages. Some creatures seem to enjoy being looked at by visitors and play all kinds of tricks, as if they are ‘showing off’. Among these are the chimpanzees, orang-utans and gibbons, which perform acrobatics, often leaping all round the cage, or wrap themselves up in newspaper.
From Grolier Encyclopedia International (1967)
ZAHARIAS, MILDRED DIDRIKSON (‘BABE’), 1911–56: American athlete, born in Port Arthur, Tex. She was voted the outstanding woman athlete of the first half of the 20th century in an Associated Press poll. As ‘Babe’ Didrikson she distinguished herself in track and field by setting world records in the javelin throw and 80-meter hurdles in the 1932 Olympic Games. In 1938 she married the noted wrestler George Zaharias. An outstanding performer in basketball, baseball, and billiards, she later concentrated on golf. Her courageous but losing battle against cancer won the admiration of the sports-minded throughout the world.
From Encyclopaedia Judaica, First Edition, Jerusalem (1971)
ZYCHLIN: Town in Lodz province, near Kutno, central Poland. A Jewish community existed in Zychlin from the 18th century, and in 1765 there were 311 Jews paying the poll tax. About 3,500 Jews lived in Zychlin in 1939, forming approximately 50 per cent of the total population. The town fell to the German forces on Sept. 17 1939, and on the following day all the Jewish men were driven to a village 15 miles away, but after detention in a church for three days were released. In April 1940 the Polish and Jewish intellectuals, especially teachers, were arrested and deported to German concentration camps. On Purim (March 3) 1942, the [remaining] Jewish population was assembled in the market place, and 3,200 persons were loaded on carts; anyone too weak to climb up on the carts was shot on the spot. The entire Jewish population of Zychlin was thus dispatched to the Chelmno death camp and murdered.
From Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Third Edition, Macmillan (1975)
ZEN: One of the currents of Far Eastern Buddhism. The word ‘Zen’ itself is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese character transcribing the Sanskrit term dhyana (meditation, self-absorption); the Chinese pronunciation is ch’an. Zen devolved in China in the sixth and seventh centuries under the strong influence of Taoism, from which Zen borrowed the disregard for knowledge and the conviction that the truth cannot be expressed in words but can only be attained by an internal leap, freeing the consciousness not only from the beaten paths of thought but from thought in general. An idiosyncratic (vulgarized) variant of Zen flourishes among beatniks, who understand Zen as an ideology that rejects civilization.