skidoosh

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:46 AM -0400 6/11/08, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 11:06 AM, Mark Peters <markpeters33 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>  Marc Velasco <marcjvelasco at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>  >
>>  > also related to 'squadoosh' (as heard on ESPN's PTI).  squadoosh
>>  > means something like zero.
>>
>>  I've wondered about squadoosh... I've only heard it on PTI too.
>>Could it be related
>>  to squat too? What a great word.
>
>No doubt influenced by "squat" (in usage if not origin), since it
>works like other "squatitives"/"vulgar minimizers".
>
>Early cites from
>Usenet:
>
>-----
>rec.sport.boxing, Feb 11 1996
>Should be interesting, despite the fact that the title doesn't mean squadoosh.
>-----
>alt.tv.seinfeld, Oct 18 1996
>These "scandals" you love to enumerate don't mean squadoosh as far as any of
>our daily lives are concerned.
>-----
>rec.pets.dogs.behavior, Jan 27 1997
>That turd is proof that lots of letters after your name don't mean squadoosh.
>-----
>alt.sports.football.pro.tampabay-bucs, Mar 19 1997
>Mike Wolfstone (who apparently doen't know squadoosh about televised
>football)...
>-----

And crucially, like other squatitives (hey, can I claim priority for
that technical term, or does it predate 2001?  and when does it make
it into the OED?), it appears in unlicensed contexts too:

That means squadoosh
It means squadoosh
the running game for an NFL team means squadoosh
NIT means squadoosh
a division championship means squadoosh

[yup, lots o' sports contexts]

Some discussion on alt.usage.english--non-definitive as to origin,
but other speculations about Italian(-American), plus one suggestion
of a blend of "squat" + "douche", or at least influence from the
latter.

LH

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