14 Nov 2013

Z IS REALLY THE END

Jenny Matlock
more participants at Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday

Due to my vintage age or sun burnt brain, I skipped one letter and therefore was at the end of this meme already last week.(see here).

In the hope there would be another letter after Z, I learned thanks to Wikipedia that  Z is the twenty-sixth and final letter of the ISO basic Latin alphabet. Of course I didn't know what ISO meant. Certainly not the male version of the name Isa. I googled and found out that ISO stands for "International Organization for Standardization". I tell you Blogging improves your general knowledge and maybe in a few years I will be named Mrs. Wikipedia.

I also learned that in earlier times, the English alphabets used by children terminated not with Z but with & or related typographic symbols.  In her 1859 novel Adam Bede, George Eliot refers to Z being followed by & when her character Jacob Storey says, "He thought it [Z] had only been put to finish off th' alphabet like; though ampusand would ha' done as well, for what he could see.

Please don't ask me who George Eliot is, I give up !

This is the end of round "?" and therefore it ends with the letter Z !

z z z z z

PS. I found George Eliot in Wikipedia (I am too curious not to know)

18 comments:

  1. Just to let you know that I constantly think of you and your cats, cats often protrayed to be ZZZZ? true?

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  2. Funny! I love looking stuff up as well and did so for my post this week.

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  3. Love your beautiful header and the clay hands.

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  4. Great header shot ~ enjoy your zzz ~ thanks, carol, xxx

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  5. It's amazing how much I've learned since I started blogging! Great way to end this round!

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  6. I can't stand to not look something up either.

    Nice end to the meme...

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  7. Glad you looked up George Eliot -- I was going to suggest Wikipedia, LOL! That's interesting about the & at the end :)
    Maybe smiley faces should be the new "last letter"...

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  8. Hi Gattina .. so easy to get behind or too far in front I find - but we carry on ... even if we zizzzz our way there ...

    The development of the alphabet is interesting isn't it .. cheers Hilary

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  9. Brilliant post to end this round. Hugs to you xx

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  10. I will know whom to ask when I can't find out about something... you are the Wiki expert!

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  11. Gattina, I love the ending to your post--ZZZZZZZ! That's one of my favorite things!!

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  12. I never knew about &!
    I like to know about stuff, too.

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  13. Aha, I was just about to tell you that George Eliot was a novelist in the 19th century. She was also a "SHE" - nothing to do with Z but I love Ann's take on the cats doing ZZZ. That's what all five of mine are doing right now -have been doing for the past four hours of daylight and will ZZZ until 4.45 or 5pm today! BTW Do you say: ZED or ZEE for the letter Z? Have a great weekend. (((Hugs))) Jo

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  14. I'm with you. Looking things up is compulsive with me, and so easy to do now, too. Thanks, Google!

    ;)

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  15. I always knew George Elliot was a woman and she is on my list of authors to read if I live long enough.
    These days I find google compulsive reading and am always looking something up.
    Charlotte as always is ZZZZZZ.

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  16. Hi Ms Wikipedia! You may have more influence than you thought! I read a couple of weeks ago that a fellow blogger hosted a link-up because of you!

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  17. Hours and hours can zoom by when I am on Wikipedia...

    There is all sorts of zany information on the internet!

    Who knew the alphabet used to end in &...?

    Thanks for linking to the letter "Z"!

    A+

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