[Ads-l] Zilch

[Jonathan Lighter]

Cf.

1928 Ed Sullivan in _Seattle Daily Times_ (Jan. 17) 18: Instead he told
you, and he told me, and he told Joe Zilch, sitting in the third row.

1930 _Trenton Sunday Times-Advertiser_ (Oct. 12) 28: Looked like Joe
Doakes, Joe Zilch, or any other busher.

1934 _American Speech_ (Apr.) 159: Character Names in the Comic
Strips...Unk Pribble, Calvin Q. Twirp, Joe Zilch, [etc.]

1938 Lewis L. Laws _Invisible Stripes_ (N.Y.: Farrar & Rinehart) 114: This
an' that happened. Joe said this, an' Zilch said that.

1946  _Calif. Folklore Qly._  V (Oct. 1946) 385: American Naval "Slanguage"
in the Pacific in 1945 ...Soon _Joe Handlebars_ made his appearance as the
average fashionable youth. He was immediately followed by _Joe Zilch_ , an
anonymous or eccentric person.

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


As Peter suggests, "Zilch/ Ziltch" is an actual U.S. surname.


("Joe Handlebars" is not findable elsewhere.)

Peter's 1956 ex. occurs in a naval aviation context.  Similarly, An Air
Force F-100D Super Sabre jet fighter with the "buzz number"  (fuselage ID)
 "000" is said to have been nicknamed "Triple Zilch" in 1957.  The name was
certainly in print by 1960:

*http://tinyurl.com/jdbcevh <http://tinyurl.com/jdbcevh>*


JL

On Mon, Feb 8, 2016 at 2:24 PM, Peter Morris <
peter_morris_1 at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Peter Morris <peter_morris_1 at BLUEYONDER.CO.UK>
> Subject:      Zilch
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> From World Wide Words
>
> http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-zil1.htm
>
> You're right that dictionaries are almost uniformly cautious=20
> about the origin of this word, which means "nothing; zero".=20
> It appears first in print in the mid 1960s (the first example=20
> in the big Oxford English Dictionary is from a slang=20
> collection at the University of South Dakota dated Winter 1966).
>
> Here's an earlier cite with the  meaning "nothing" being  fairly clear.=20
>
> "What are the chances for rescue?" an operator asked.=20
> "Zilch!" somebody muttered.
>
> Popular Mechanics, July 1956
> http://tinyurl.com/zzqg2s9
>
>
> Here's a few other cites, with the intended meaning being=20
> somewhat less clear. I can't honestly say if any of them mean=20
> "nothing".=20
>
>
> Having no real choice in the matter Sunbathers all agreed that=20
> Zilch was the word for Tappan Hall's sub-basement cocktail
> lounge ...=20
>
> Ensian, (Michigan University magazine)  1958
> http://tinyurl.com/gmzkrlp
>
>
>
> Four-F's Footlight Front. Medico-Nixed Troupers  From A
> to Zilch Also Serving Flag as Morale Corps
>
> The Billboard, November 23 1943
> http://tinyurl.com/hd8sd9t
>
> (I suspect that Zilch is being used as a surname here, but
> maybe it's a general term for unfit draftees)=20
>
>
>
> You zilch, don't you know that mast hoops never wear out?
> Motor Boating, January 1933
> http://tinyurl.com/hkkzqpn
>
>
> Accordingly, the author often uses the word Zilch as the name=20
> of a thing whose nature is unknown to the student.
>
> Axiomatic analysis: an introduction to logic and the real number system
> Robert Katz, 1964  (?) Google dating disclaimers apply.
> http://tinyurl.com/hc3keor
>
>
>
>
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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