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

[Mark Mandel]

Thanks, Ben.

Mark

On Sat, Aug 20, 2022, 1:38 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:

> "Nix" meaning 'nothing, none' (from German "nichts") is the older sense in
> English (OED3 1781), with other negative meanings derived from it (OED3 has
> 'no' from 1846 and 'cancel, reject' from 1903). The 'nothing' meaning is
> uncommon now but was likely unremarkable in 1917.
>
> On Sat, Aug 20, 2022 at 9:02 AM Mark Mandel <markamandel at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > 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?
> > >
> >
>
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>

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