X. Y. Z. CORRESPONDENCE, in United States history, the name given to the dispatches of the three commission ers to France, Marshall, Pinckney, and Gerry, containing the insulting demands made by Talleyrand and the other French Directors as the price of respect and courtesy to the American republic. In the otherwise complete copies pub lished by Congress President Adams sub stituted X. Y. and Z. for the names of Talleyrand's emissaries. To the de mands the United States representatives returned a decided refusal. It is said that Pinckney, in response, made use of the phrase, "Millions for defense, but not once cent for tribute." Y, y, the 25th letter of the English al phabet, in modern English, both a con sonant and a vowel. It is taken from the Latin, into which language it was adopted from the Greek (v) or upsilon. It sometimes represents an Anglo-Saxon character which is supposed to have a sound resembling that of the French u or German ii.
At the beginning of syllables, and when followed by a vowel y is a palatal consonant, being formed by bringing the middle of the tongue in contact with the palate, nearly in the position to which the g hard brings it. Hence, the Anglo-Saxon hard g has often been soft ened to y, as in day=Anglo-Saxon dap', may=Anglo-Saxon may, etc. In words of Romance origin y frequently repre sents: (1) French -ie=Latin -ia, as in bar ony, company, copy, jolly, family, mem ory, victory, etc. (2) Latin -ium, as augury, horology, remedy, study, etc. (3) Latin -atus, as attorney, deputy, ally, quarry. (4) French -if; Latin -ivus, as hasty, (=Old French hastif), jolly (=Middle English jolif ; Old French jo/i, fern. jolive), testy, etc. (5)
Many words ending in y have come through Latin nouns in -ia (=French -ie), from Greek -ia, -eia, as analo.gy, apology, blasphemy, philosophy, etc. (6) As an adjective termination, y gen erally represents the Anglo-Saxon -ig, as in stony=Anglo-Saxon stcinig, hungry =Anglo-Saxon hungrig. So also in some nouns it represents Anglo-Saxon -ig, as in honey=Anglo-Saxon hunig. In the suffix, -1y, it is both an adjectival and an adverbial suffix, and represents the Anglo-Saxon -ic, -ice, or -fiche, as godly= Anglo-Saxon godlic, friendly=Anglo Saxon freondlic, hardly=Anglo-Saxon heardlice. In nouns ending in -ty, this ending represents the French -te, Latin =tatem (nominative- tas), as in vanity (=French vanity, Latin vanitatent, accus. of vanitatus), calamity, etc.
In the middle, and at the end of words, y is a vowel, and is precisely the same as i. When accented it is pronounced as i long, as in de-fy, dy'ing, etc., and when unaccented as i short, as in glory, jol-ly, city, etc. Y is sometimes called the Pythagorean letter, from its Greek orig inal in its form of three limbs repre senting the sacred triad formed by the duad proceeding from the monad. In chemistry, Y is the symbol of yttrium. As a numeral, it stands for 150, and with a dash over it for 150,000. is a common prefix in Middle English words, and represents the Anglo-Saxon -e or ge-, as in yclept, yclad. It is the same as ge-.