Saw this restaurant sign the other night… the ‘Pizza Den’ neon was perfectly set up. Did you ever in your life call it ‘za before? Because I didn’t.Â
And, also: Are two z’s better than one? Guess not. It’s still a sad thing to say… That term “za” was used at least as far back as the Sixties, according to some people who were around at that time. The OED [Oxford English Dictionary, I’m assuming] has an entry for “za” that traces the usage back to 1968, was included in a etymology type thread on the Straight Dope website.
Upon finding that out, a thread participant named Kayaker responded,Â
Wow. Unbelievable. Must be confirmation bias on my part. I never heard the word until recently, and I hated it and assumed it was a “new thing” because I kept running into it.
