"zilch" antedating (1956)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Undoubtedly true.

[1935 _Esquire's Bedroom Companion_  (N.Y.: Sterling) 79: There was a young
lady named Syney, Nancy, Gretil, Billy, Toots, Frances, Zilch.]

[1938 Lewis Lawes _Invisible Stripes __ 114 (N.Y.: Farrar & Rinehart): This
an' that happened. Joe said this an' Zilch said that.]

1964, in _Time_ (Jan. 1, 1965) 56: A _zilch_ is a total loss, and so is a
_wimp_..._gink_ [etc.].

JL
On Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 1:15 PM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> Subject:      "zilch" antedating (1956)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> OED online has 1966
>
> July 1956 Popular Mechanics 106.1, "We'll Conquer Antarctica With Wings" by
> Richard F. Dempewolff,  page 74 col. 2
> "What are the chances for rescue?"
> "Zilch!" somebody muttered.
>
> (As OED may possibly seem to suggest [with two bracketed quotes], despite
> "origin uncertain," there may have been a development from comic characters
> such as Joe Zilch, a nobody, as it were[n't], a non-entity, to nothing.)
>
> Stephen Goranson
> http://www.duke.edu/~goranson
>
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