What did “zig-zac” mean?
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“
Zig-Zac
.
Small pieces of wood flat on one side & nail in a diamond shape, but nail so that they stick together.
To give a letter with a zig-zac ”, such is in 1680 the definition of“ zig-zac ”followed by a concrete example.
Read also Only a French-speaking madman will have 10/10 in this test on the words that have changed meaning
We will find the same word in 1690 at Furetière with our modern spelling, then in 1694 in the form "ziczac" in the first edition of the
Dictionary of the French Academy
, but with a very explicit example as to its usefulness:
"Donner
un
lettre from the rush to a window by means of a ziczac. "
The" zigzag "as a tool for multiplying gesture and movement with multiple functions has disappeared with the help of technical progress. Thus, Furetière evoked, for example, the fact that in the military equipment of the time there were
"bridges & ladders in the shape of a zigzag"
, adding that
"the great machine of Marli which raises the waters of the Seine more 400 feet to take them to Versailles, is a kind of zigzag
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