Buzz
In the 1890s, a uniquely American artistic movement took shape: the comic strip. However, artists quickly faced a challenge. To fully realize some of their comic scenes, they needed a character to be fast asleep, adding to the humor of the situation.
But how could the artist make it clear that a character was truly asleep and unaware, rather than just lying down? Depicting this state, which is typically silent and still, posed a challenge, especially in the dynamic world of comics. The solution? Highlighting the most noticeable aspect—snoring.
The Origins of Zzz
Before a standard method was adopted, comic artists explored various ways to illustrate snoring. This often involved combinations of sound-imitating letters, like zzggrrhh, ur-r-r-awk, or z-z-c-r-r-k-k-k-k. Symbols, such as stars or musical notes, were also used. Some artists even drew a log being sawed above a sleeping character’s head, referencing the well-known idiom for sleep. Those with fewer creative ideas simply wrote 'snore.'
Ultimately, one depiction became the norm: the letters Zzz. The first known use of it dates back to 1903 in the comic Katzenjammer Kids, created by Rudolph Dirks. In the strip, the snoring Captain rests peacefully in his hammock, emitting z’s, while the playful Katzenjammer kids trim his beard with a mower and cut his hammock's ropes.
While Dirks didn’t always use Zzz for snoring, he frequently opted for variations of it. Other comics, like The Fineheimer Twins, Krazy Kat, and the humor section of Boy’s Life, the Boy Scout Magazine, followed his lead, using z’s throughout the 1910s. By 1918, the symbol had firmly entered the lexicon, earning its own entry in the American Dialect Society’s records: “z-z-z (sound of whispering or snoring).”
Do Other Languages Use Zzz to Represent Sleep?
Though the letter Z serves as more of a visual representation of sleep rather than a verbal one, it has made its mark on languages worldwide.
In the 1940s, the verb zonk (out) emerged to describe the sudden plunge into a deep sleep. The phrase 'catch some Zs' is another direct result of Zzz’s popularity, although it’s pronounced slightly differently in various English-speaking regions, such as the UK, Canada, and Australia. There, a tired individual needs to catch some 'zeds,' and even a nap has been affectionately called a 'zizz.'
Many languages have their own distinctive sounds or expressions for snoring beyond Zzz. For instance, Germans use chrr, while French and Spanish speakers incorporate their r sounds with versions like roon or simply rrr. In Japan, the characters guu-guu are used, and in Mandarin, it resembles hu-lu. Despite regional differences in onomatopoeia, Zzz has made its mark globally as a universal symbol for sleep.
