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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]

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

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

Maybe Zählvariable or something like that?

Counter is Zähler, not Zahlen, though.