[Ads-l] Zilch

Tue Feb 9 16:38:43 UTC 2016

There is evidence of the name "Minnie Zilch" being used to refer to an
insignificant person or an unimportant person. Here is a 1926 example
from the syndicated column of O. O. McIntyre:

Date: February 24, 1926
Newspaper: Charlotte Observer
Newspaper Location; Charlotte, North Carolina
Column: Day By Day in Florida
Author: O. O. McIntyre
Quote Page 22, Column 5
Database: GenealogyBank

[Begin excerpt]
Society editors in Miami do not smile any more at mimeographed
announcements that "Miss Minnie Zilch of the Bronx, leader of New
York's Four Hundred, is entertaining at the Flamingo for dinner."
[End excerpt]

In 1928 a "plain" character in a movie is given the name Minnie Zilch:

Date: August 16, 1928
Newspaper: The Cincinnati Enquirer
Newspaper Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Article: Theaters and Parks
Quote Page 14, Column 4
Database: Newspapers.com

[Begin excerpt]
CAPITOL--"Warming Up," the latest starring production for Richard Dix,
and the first with complete sound effects to be released from the
Paramount studio, arrives Saturday at the Capitol Theater. . .

The story concerns a love affair between Dix, a rookie pitcher of the
Yankees, and the daughter of the club's owner, whom Dix courts as
plain "Minnie Zilch," nursemaid and governess. Needless to say, in the
end Dix wins the ball game with his brilliant playing and the girl
with his ardent lovemaking.
[End excerpt]

Below is a 1930 citation in which "Minnie Zilch" is an insignificant
person who is causing an interruption in a musical program:

Date: April 3, 1930
Newspaper: The Courier-Journal
Newspaper Location: Louisville, Kentucky
Database: Newspapers.com

[Begin excerpt]
. . . it is common sense that to interrupt, a musical programme by
reading a telegram or letter, stating that Mrs. Minnie Zilch has just
phoned up to say her little baby of 5 years old enjoyed our rendition
of "Georgia Porgie" and asks us to play it again, detracts from the
musical value of the programme.
[End excerpt]

There is also evidence of some "genuine" people with the name "Minnie Zilch".

Garson

On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 10:57 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Zilch
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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>>
>
>
>
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