"the name of the letter Z in the alphabet," c. 1400, probably from Old French zede, from Late Latin zeta, from Greek zēta, from Hebrew zayin, letter name, literally "weapon;" so called in reference to the shape of this letter in ancient Hebrew. U.S. pronunciation zee is first attested 1670s. Other dialectal names for the letter are izzard, ezod, uzzard, and zod.

"mark placed under the letter -c- in certain situations," 1590s, from Spanish cedilla, zedilla, literally "little z," from a Latin-like diminutive of Greek zēta "the letter 'z'" (see zed). The mark, mainly used in French and Portuguese (formerly also used in Spanish), was derived from that letter and indicates a "soft" sound in letters in positions where normally they have a "hard" sound. Sometimes the word is used as though it means the entire character ç.