Chapter Zephyr to Zulfagar of Z by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Zephyr to Zulfagar

Zephyr The west wind, the son of AEolus and Aurora, and the lover of Flora. (Roman mythology.)
   Pas de zephyr. Standing on one foot and balancing the other backwards and forwards.

Zeus (1 syl.). The Grecian Jupiter. The word means the “living one.” (Sanskrit, Djaus, heaven.) (See Jupiter. )

Zeuxis (2 syl.), a Grecian painter, is said to have painted some grapes so well that the birds came and pecked at them.

“Een as poor birds, deceived with painted grapes,
Do surfeit by the eye, and pine the maw.”
Shakespeare: Venus and Adonis.

Zif Hypothetical stock, entered in “salted accounts,” to give a colourable balance “to the good.” (Hebrew ziphr, a book.) (Vidocq: Les Voleurs, vol. ii. pp. 81, 87.)

Zig A prodigious cock, which stands with its feet on the earth and touches heaven with its head. When its wings are spread it darkens the sun, and causes a total eclipse. This cock crows before the Lord, and delighteth Him. (Babylonish Talmud.)

Zig A chum, a comrade. (Italian zigno, a newt or little lizard.) It generally- means un mauvais camarade, unless otherwise qualified. (French argot.)

“Only the bon zig Rac.”- Ouida: Under Two Flags, chap xxv.

Zim and Jim “His house was made a habitation for Zim and Jim, and every unclean thing” (Godly Man's Portion, 1663). The marginal reading of Isa. xii. 21, 22, explains Zim to be wild beasts, and Jim jackals.

Zimri in Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel, is the second Duke of Buckingham. Like the captain who conspired against Asa, King of Judah, he “formed parties and joined factions,” but pending the issue “he was drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, steward of his house.” (1 Kings xvi. 9.)

“Some of the chiefs were princes in the land;
In the first rank of these did Zimri stand;
A man so various that he seemed to be
Not one, but all mankind's epitome.
Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong,
Was everything by starts, and nothing long.”
Part i. 543-548.

Zincali Gipsies; so called in Spain from Sinte or Sind (India) and calo (black), the supposition being that they came from Hindustan, which no doubt is true. The Persian Zangi means an Ethiopian or Egyptian.

Zindikites (3 syl.). An heretical Mahometan sect, who disbelieve in God, the resurrection, and a future life. They think that the world is the production of four eternal elements, and that man is a microcosm of the world.

Zineura in the Decameron of Boccaccio (day ii. novel 9), is the Imogen of Shakespeare's Cymbeline. In male attire Zineura assumed the name of Sicurano da Finale, and Imogen of Fidele. Zineura's husband was Bernard Lomellin, and the villain was Ambrose. Imogen's husband was Posthumus Leonatus, and the villain Iachimo. In Shakespeare, the British king Cymbeline takes the place assigned by Boccaccio to the sultan.

Zion Daughter of Zion. Jerusalem or its inhabitants. The city of David stood on Mount Zion. Zion and Jerusalem were pretty much in the same relation to each other as Old and New Edinburgh. (Hebrew, Tsiyon, a hill.)

Zist “Se trouver entre le zist ct le zest.” To be in a quandary; in a state of perfect bewilderment. Also, to shilly shally. “Zest” is anything of no value, as “Cela ne vaut pas un zest” (It is not worth a fig). “Zist” is the same word slightly varied.

Zobeide (2 syl.). A lady of Bagdad, whose history is related in the Three Calenders. The Kalif Haroun- al-Ras-chid married her. (Arabian Nights.)