The Last Shall Be First, and The First Last: Z is both the last letter of the modern alphabet and the most infrequently used. To show how low down the totem pole it was: Z was dropped from the Roman alphabet for 200 years, from about 300 BC to 100 BC. The decision was made by a Roman censor (magistrate) named Appius Claudius Caecus. Why? "because it resembles in its expression the teeth of a corpse, that is, in sounding the letter, the lips pulled over the teeth looked much as they would in the rictus of death." As for Zavodnick: probably Russian, and very rare. Cedar Grove Cemetery [2018]
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