"zilch" antedating (1956)

[Stephen Goranson]

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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