[Ads-l] Zilch

[Laurence Horn]

> On Feb 11, 2016, at 11:14 AM, W Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Yiddish anyone?  WB's WAG:  German dial <Siel> 'sewer' + -isch > *Sielisch
> *'crappy' >  Zilsch, Zilch, zilch.
> Cf. Thomas Crapper, crapper, crap, crappy, crap out 'lose (at craps), usw.
> 
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"Cf. as in 'for a parallel etymythology, see'?  The crapper, or at least crap, considerably anteceded Thomas, however well-named he may have been.  Here's the OED on "crap":"

Etymology:  Identical with earlier Dutch krappe ‘carptus, carptura, res decerpta, frustum decerptum siue abscissum, pars abrasa siue abscissa; pars carnis abscissa; crustum; offella, offula; placenta; pulpamentum’ (Kilian, 1599), connected with krappen to pluck off, cut off, separate. Compare also French crape, Old French crappe siftings, also ‘the grain trodden under feet in the barn, and mingled with the straw and dust’ (M. L. Delisle in Godefroy), medieval Latin crappa in Du Cange. (Compare also crapinum the smaller chaff.) In modern French the word has taken the sense of ‘dirt, filth’, and ‘grease of a millstone’. It is doubtful whether all the senses here placed belong to one word, though a common notion of ‘rejected or left matter, residue, dregs, dust’ runs through them.

and "crapper" is deftly taken to derive from "crap" + "-er"

LH

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