Attested from 1712. Borrowed fromFrenchzigzag (attested from 1662),[1] possibly from aGermanic source viaWalloonziczac (althoughGermanZickzack is attested only from 1703). Also, possibly from the shape of the letterZ, which appears twice in the word. Sense “drunk” from the zigzag movements of a drunk person.
She had just succeeded in curving it down into a gracefulzigzag, and was going to dive in among the leaves, which she found to be nothing but the tops of the trees under which she had been wandering, when a sharp hiss made her draw back in a hurry:[…].
1891 February–December, Robert Louis Stevenson,In the South Seas[…], New York, N.Y.:Charles Scribner’s Sons, published1896,→OCLC:
And still, high in front, arose the precipitous barrier of the mountain, greened over where it seemed that scarce a harebell could find root, barred with thezigzags of a human road where it seemed that not a goat could scramble.
The entrance to this ancient place of devotion was under a very low round arch, ornamented by several courses of thatzig-zag moulding, resembling shark's teeth, which appears so often in the more ancient Saxon churches.
We followed the mule-road, azigzag course, now to the right, now to the left, but always up, and always crowded and incommoded by going and coming files of reckless tourists who were never, in a single instance, tied together.
Then he addressed a keen-sighted, remembering gaze to the rim-wall above. It was serrated, and between two spears of rock, directly in line with his position, showed azigzag crack that at night would let through the gleam of sky.
[…] she saw them as we see the throngs which cover the canvases of Sallaert, Van Alsloot, and others of that school—vast masses of beings, jostling,zigzagging, and processioning in definite directions, but whose features are indistinguishable by the very comprehensiveness of the view.
At the base this vent was dark, cool, and smelled of dry, musty dust. Itzigzagged so that he could not see ahead more than a few yards at a time.
2002, Malcolm Yorke,Mervyn Peake: My Eyes Mint Gold: A Life, page298:
If the first two novels created a new genre — Peakean fantasy — then this third volumezigzags between several: theBildungsroman, science fiction, social satire, morality tale and dystopian prophecy.
^*Lighter, Jonathan (1972) “The Slang of the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe, 1917-1919: An Historical Glossary”, inAmerican Speech[1], volume47, number1/2, page119
