The library this house declares and checks data shapes with. A named tool rather than a concept.
A modern coinage, not an inherited word: named by its author after General Zod, the Superman villain whose catchphrase "Kneel before Zod!" the project borrows as its running joke — the library exists to make data submit to a declared shape, or be rejected.
A borrowed name for enforcement: a shape gets declared, and data either matches it or is turned away. The joke behind the name is kept in earnest — submission to a declared shape, not negotiation with it.