Word of the Day: Zât


Only in Romania I think is there a specific word – zât – used to yell at animals to get them to go away. It’s pronounced something like zut!

I had to laugh because Jeff Foxworthy used to do a stand-up routine about his father using a phrase in Redneck English meaning the exact same thing, which you can hear here.

AND NOW YOU KNOW!

12 thoughts on “Word of the Day: Zât

  1. Well Romanian is full of surprises.
    In Moldova region the word is “câț”
    One day in Moldova, one cat literally stared confused at the person shouting “zât” until she heard the magic word “câț” and vanished in the instant.

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      1. Try a long “ssss”, or “sssshhaa”. You catch their attention with the friction consonant (“s”) and the “hhaa” means more like an intention. In this case, you try to send them away.

        This “technique” is used in Oltenia.

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  2. Zat for me was a literary version. But if you hear mine you’ll fall into the same issue with “fac”, because it’s “Shits!”

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  3. The French have also the word zut but not for telling off cats but for saying Damn! The Romanian zât is for cats only.

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      1. It has been discover that also various animal species have dialects. Old Kingdom cats (pisicile regatene that is) may understand Zât but not the Trasylvanian ones (pisicile ardelenesti I mean) :-)

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      2. Well since one of my cats is from Brasov and one from the Banat (Timisoara), perhaps that explains their lack of understanding my porunci :PPP

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