OU blog

Personal Blogs

Richard Walker

Out-Pizzazzing Pizzazz

Visible to anyone in the world

If you had asked me just a couple of days back what word in English has the most zs in it, then  I would have instantly replied 'pizzazz'. It's the obvious answer (and has a lot of pizzazz).

But I have learned better. The correct answer is 'zenzizenzizenzic', referring to numbers which are "squares of squares squared".

So (if I have it right) 3 squared is 3 x 3 = 9; square that is 81; square 81 and we get 6561. There you go. 6561 is a zenzizenzizenzic number.

The word erupted briefly in the 16c, like a sort of linguistic supernova, but sadly soon faded in favor of 8, more compact but less zedful.

Permalink Add your comment
Share post

This blog might contain posts that are only visible to logged-in users, or where only logged-in users can comment. If you have an account on the system, please log in for full access.

Total visits to this blog: 2279580