[kwkelly]

The word with Z may be related to “zahlen” which is where Z as the letter commonly used to represent the integers comes from. [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integer#History

[xyzelement]

I think it was a much longer word, and to be clear - neither of the dudes was German.

[stingraycharles]

That’s an important detail, I assumed they were German. That makes it much sillier.

[ruune]

Maybe Zählvariable or something like that?

[dayjaby]

Counter is Zähler, not Zahlen, though.