Maybe it’s taken off because it’s an acceptable and commonly played word in Words With Friends (it’s also in the Scrabble dictionary). I remember being angry the first time it was played against me.
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. /Wow.
The only place I’ve ever heard it used is a scene on the Canadian TV show “Slings and Arrows”, from 2003. In the context, it’s used in a self-consciously ridiculous way.
The OED has an entry for “za” that traces the usage back to 1968.
It’s also, if the movie “Touch of Satan” is to be believed what rambunctious teenagers shout at scared townsfolk who think they’re witches.
A rare mention of one of the best television series of all time! I am not kidding.
I was in college during the Nixon years and I don’t remember anybody ever saying “za” but it seems clear that it started as regional slang, maybe in Boston.
Searching Google ngrams for “za” brings up so many false hits that you’d need the patience of someone printing the Declaration of Independence on a grain of rice to search out the true hits. How it is possible to have more za than pizza?
Deleted. Too snarky.
The only context I’ve ever seen or heard the word in is discussions of its validity in Scrabble.
A character in an urban fantasy series called the Dresden Files is called the “Za Lord” by a collection of faeries and sprites, supposedly unironically (the character bribes them with pizza for their support - they prefer pizza to the traditional sugar/bread/milk offerings that most people leave for the fae). That remains the only place I’ve seen “za” used for pizza.
They are faeries tho, and perhaps resultingly not hip to actual slang.
Exactly what I was going to say. When it was added a couple years ago, it was the 1st I heard it.
I heard rents for parents back in the 80s. I’ve never heard za for pizza.
Yep. I think I learned of the word playing Lexulous. I’ve heard people use it, but mostly in a kidding way.
I first heard it on Family Guy when Stewie was on a date with an Italian girl.
I think someone has been taking the piz.
Back around 1986, in the midwest, you’d hit up the rents for some dough to buy za. Another word we had was vater for elevator, used most often as “Hold the vater!”
Outside this thread, I’ve only encountered it in the Neal Stephenson novel Snow Crash. Before you get introduced to the main character, Hiro Protagonist, the story begins with an interlude that details the end of his career as a pizza delivery driver (The Deliverator).
Nope, a small town in Pennsylvania.
I first heard za circa 1982 or 1983, and considered it a silly juvenile affectation then, from my lofty perch as 24 year old med stud who thought all the college kids looked waaaay too young.
I’m good with ‘za’ now though.
That’s pretty much all of PA other than Philly and Pittsburgh.
I’ve always called them pies. Only time I’ve heard them called 'za has been by frat boys and parodies thereof.
First time I heard za was 1977 at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The Home of Domino’s