I reached for the handle and itzotted me — an electric shock to the elbow.
1997, Matt Lepinski, “Zotting”, inrec.humor.oracle.d (Usenet):
I've heard rumors about the oraclezotting people and I have these questions about zot?
1997, Terry Moore, “COPS PUT LIVES ON LINE?”, inaustin.general (Usenet):
When a taxi driver, convenience store clerk, pizza deliverer, etc., getszotted, it is on the back page of the local newspaper and not in out of town newspapers at all.
1998, RosieDawg, “watergardening and dogs and Rosie's new toy, OT-ish”, inrec.ponds (Usenet):
electric fence -zotting me was fine (well really!) but they were worried about zotting the several dozen human puppies that hang around at our house.
Sound effect in thecomic stripB.C., first published in 1958, associated with both (1) the rapid tongue of an anteater character and (2) lightning bolts.
2000 April 9, Squirrel, “SA Silence on Mugabe's actions”, insoc.culture.south-africa[3] (Usenet):
Regretfully there is nothing that can be done about things .. just a time bomb ticking, ticking, ticking .. until one day soon, thezots will decide to take a property here, and a property there (they have after all started with vacant land and been successful), so why not progress to property?
2000 October 29, Nude Raider, “Here are the facts...”, insoc.culture.south-africa[4] (Usenet):
(SA) ¶ The government has TACITLY condoned the actions of thezots by allowing them to continue their illegal occupation. (Zimbabwe) ¶ The government condoned the illegal activities and progressed to the point where they were actively supporting it.
2002 July 5, Alistair, “Re: Tobacco barn and other assets- disassembly instructions”, insoc.culture.zimbabwe[5] (Usenet):
Thezots will destroy the barns, the homesteads, the tractors, everything - reducing them to their component parts without the aid of explosives.
In French, the plural wordautres is commonly preceded by a word, such asaux,les ormes, whose finals orx is not pronounced except in front of vowels, where it is pronounced/z/. As a result, autres was reanalyzed as having/z/ at the beginning.
