[Ads-l] "a regular Bulgarian army" (1917)

[Mark Mandel]

Also interesting, to me at least, is the use of "nix" — which today and in
my experience is only used as a verb or interjection of denial or refusal,
partly synonymous with "no" —  where I would expect "nil", or a synonym
such as "zero" or "nonexistent".

MAM

On Fri, Aug 19, 2022, 6:58 PM Nancy Friedman <wordworking at gmail.com> wrote:

> The volunteer archivist at the bay swimming and boating club I belong to
> has a question about a phrase she came across in a July 1917 club document:
>
> “Our athletes will be lost in the shuffle among a regular Bulgarian army of
> contestants, and their chances of showing or even getting mentioned in the
> papers are practically nix.”
>
> Any ideas about what the phrase signified?
>
> Nancy Friedman
> @fritinancy
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org