Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
-z en · X · etymology 1
Etymology
An eye dialect spelling variant of -s.
Meanings
(Internet, Leet, humorous, morpheme, slang) Used as a substitute for -s in marking the plural of nouns. Usually used in words in which the -s suffix is actually pronounced /z/.
Boyz are always trouble, while girlz just play with their Bratz dolls.
From a mutation (specifically a zetacism) of the rhotic consonant /ɹ/ to /z/.
While standalone suffixation (such as soz and Baz) gained wide recognition in British print during the 1980s, the underlying morphophonological shift is attested significantly earlier in Australian English via the derived non‐rhotic suffix -zza (such as Bazza for Barry), which has been in print since at least the 1960s.
Meanings
(Australia, New-Zealand, UK, morpheme) Forms nicknames, especially of personal names.
Jeremy + -z → Jez
Barry + -z → Baz
Sharon + -z → Shaz
(UK, morpheme) Forms colloquial variants of words.