Z, the last letter of the English Alphabet, is a sibilant articulation, and is merely a vocal S. It bears the same relation to s, as v does to f. With us it has not a compound sound, nor is it a double consonant, as in the Italian and German. It is as simple in its sound as S. As a numeral, z stands for 2000, and with a dash over it, z for 2, 000, 000. It is pronounced zee.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI