[Ads-l] Zilch

[Jonathan Lighter]

How could I have overlooked

1958 in Frank Harvey _Air Force!_ [N.Y.: Ballantine] 44: They show me Zilch
[i.e., nothing].

I never found anything before 1932 for the spelling "Zilsch," though it may
well have been in use a few years earlier.

1932 _American Speech_  VII  (June) 333: Johns Hopkins Jargon... _Joe
 Zilsch_  -- John Doe.

"Zilsch" seems to be the more usual spelling of the real-life surname.

Cf. too:

1933 _Buffalo [N.Y.] Courier-Express_  (March 24) 7 : From Harvard it was
learned that the favorite word in Cambridge of late is Zilch. Zilch is the
bunk uttered by a lecturing professor. To Zilch, however, is to throw a
monkey wrench [into].

1968 Hy Lit _Unbelievable Dictionary of Hip Words_ [Phila.: Hyski Press]
52: Zilch - Double-talk.

"Zilched" was reported in 1968 as a syn. at Brown U. for "turned down on a
date" as well as at Trinity University in 1973 as "drunk."

Finally (I hope):

1953 Tom Wicker _The Kingpin_  [rpt. N.Y.: Avon,. 1974]  67: I don't mind
what he's already zilched out of the campaign fund.

JL

On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 5:05 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com
> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Zilch
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Excellent citation, Bill. O. O. McIntyre also helped popularize
> "Minnie Zilch" with his widely-syndicated column, apparently. Here is
> a column in 1927 from O. O. McIntyre stating that the character name
> "Joe Zilch" was used as a convention on Broadway.
>
> Date: September 10, 1927
> Newspaper: Charleston Gazette
> Newspaper Location: Charleston, West Virginia
> Column: New York Day by Day
> Columnist: O. O. McIntyre (McNaught syndicate)
> Quote Page 4, Column 3
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Broadway has two mythical characters--Joe Zilch and Joe Doakes. They
> are blamed for many things and accredited with great wonders. Then
> there is George Spelvin. the program name used by an actor for one of
> two roles he portrays.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Michael Quinion's article suggested a link to college slang.
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> This name may have come from college slang of the 1920s, in which Joe
> Zilsch was the archetypal average student. . .
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 1:43 PM, Mullins, Bill CIV (US)
> <william.d.mullins18.civ at mail.mil> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Mullins, Bill CIV (US)" <william.d.mullins18.civ at MAIL.MIL
> >
> > Subject:      Re: Zilch
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Slightly earlier for "Joe Zilch"
> >
> > Mt Carmel PA _Daily News_ 16 Jun 1925 p 2 col 3 (from O. O. McIntyre
> syndic=
> > ated column "New York Day by Day") (Newspapers.com)
> > "Frank Tinney used to have a comedy name which brought many chortles.
> He u=
> > sed it as a peg upon which to hang an occasional wheeze.  It was Joe
> Zilch.=
> >   This was real -- the name of a husband of a girl in the show.  She
> recent=
> > ly divorced him and said among other things she was tired of the comedy
> nam=
> > e."
> >
> > _Variety_ 10/7/1925 p 9 col 3
> > "We have been an ardent Vreeland fan ever since he first started his
> theatr=
> > ical comment column in the "Herald," yet if we met him on the street we
> wou=
> > ldn't know him from Joe Zilch."=
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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