noun
Slang Pizza.
Origin of za
Shortening and alteration of
pizza Our Living Language When people speak casually of ordering a
za, “pizza,” they are unwittingly producing an expression that language historians find interesting.
Za derives from the full form
pizza by a process known as
clipping. Two types of clipping are common in English: dropping the unstressed syllables or syllables not receiving the primary word stress, as in
fridge from
refrigerator; and dropping all syllables after the first syllable, as in
ab, dis, porn, and
vibe, whether or not the first syllable was originally stressed. In the case of
za, the syllable that was dropped was originally stressed
and was the first syllable, which is unusual.
Rents from
parents and
nads from
gonads are other examples of the same kind of clipping. Interestingly, we don't need to stay in the realm of contemporary slang to see the results of this unusual process. The words
phone, bus, and
wig (from
telephone, omnibus, periwig ) belong to Standard English but had their start as slangy or catchy neologisms formed by clipping their most strongly stressed syllable, just like
za. Symbol - (metrology) Symbol for the zettaampere, an SI unit of electrical current equal to 1021 amperes.
- The ISO 3166-1 two-letter (alpha-2) code for South Africa.
Noun (uncountable)
- (slang) Pizza
Origin Abbreviation of pizza.
Abbreviations - The ccTLD for South Africa as assigned by the IANA.
| Country code top-level domains |
| Active: .ac .ad .ae .af .ag .ai .al .am .an .ao .aq .ar .as .at .au .aw .ax .az .ba .bb .bd .be .bf .bg .bh .bi .bj .bm .bn .bo .br .bs .bt .bw .by .bz .ca .cc .cd .cf .cg .ch .ci .ck .cl .cm .cn .co .cr .cu .cv .cx .cy .cz .de .dj .dk .dm .do .dz .ec .ee .eg .er .es .et .eu .fi .fj .fk .fm .fo .fr .ga .gd .ge .gf .gg .gh .gi .gl .gm .gn .gp .gq .gr .gs .gt .gu .gw .gy .hk .hm .hn .hr .ht .hu .id .ie .il .im .in .io .iq .ir .is .it .je .jm .jo .jp .ke .kg .kh .ki .km .kn .kp .kr .kw .ky .kz .la .lb .lc .li .lk .lr .ls .lt .lu .lv .ly .ma .mc .md .me .mg .mh .mk .ml .mm .mn .mo .mp .mq .mr .ms .mt .mu .mv .mw .mx .my .mz .na .nc .ne .nf .ng .ni .nl .no .np .nr .nu .nz .om .pa .pe .pf .pg .ph .pk .pl .pm .pn .pr .ps .pt .pw .py .qa .re .ro .rs .ru .rw .sa .sb .sc .sd .se .sg .sh .si .sk .sl .sm .sn .sr .st .su .sv .sy .sz .tc .td .tf .tg .th .tj .tk .tl .tm .tn .to .tr .tt .tv .tw .tz .ua .ug .uk .us .uy .uz .va .vc .ve .vg .vi .vn .vu .wf .ws .ye .yt .za .zm .zw |
Origin . + ISO 3166-1 country code for South Africa, za.
