[Ads-l] zorch

[Jonathan Lighter]

Nancy,  *that's* a new one on me!

JL

On Fri, Apr 18, 2025 at 3:01 PM Nancy Friedman <wordworking at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Very interesting! Until today I knew “zorch" only as a slang term for
> “vagina" (sense 3 in Green's Dictionary of Slang).
>
> Nancy Friedman
> Chief Wordworker
> https://wordworking.com
> https://fritinancy.substack.com
>
> tel 510 652-4159
> cel 510 304-3953
> mastodon/instagram/bluesky/Threads @Fritinancy
>
> On Fri, Apr 18, 2025, 10:58 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Not in OED. Mentioned here in connection with "zilch,' but not yet
> > specifically treated.
> >
> > zorch  adj. & interj.  [popularized by R. B. “Red” Blanchard, Jr., Calif.
> > disk jockey] splendid.
> >
> > 1953 High School World (Topeka, Kans.) (Feb. 20) 3: “Zorch” and “Zaa” are
> > his favorite slang expressions.
> >
> > 1953 Milwaukee Journal (May 21) “Greensheet”: Zorch - Sensational,
> > marvelous, the greatest.
> >
> > 1953 Time (June 22): Real Zorch.
> >
> > 1953 Warrensburg [N.Y.] News (July 30) 4: They then exchanged one sneaker
> > each so that they might call themselves crazy, mixed-up Keds. Real zorch,
> > eh?
> >
> > 1954 Warrensburg [N1: .Y.] News (Oct. 28) 9: The decorations were zorch,
> as
> > were the games.
> >
> > 1958 Kingston [N.Y.] Daily Freeman (May 21) 21: A come-as-you-are party?
> > How utterly zorch!
> >
> > 2004 Stone Age Woo: The Zorch Sounds of Nervous Norvus (Norton CD
> > 10094662).
> >
> > As a n., 'outrageous craze; kick'  Rare.
> >
> > 1953 Albany [N.Y.] Times Union (July 22) 4: Burned Initials Latest
> “Zorch,”
> > Girl Tells Judge…It was considered to be the latest zorch in her circle
> to
> > wear the brands. She burned them on with matches.
> >
> > As v., 1.  to go at scorching speed.
> >
> > 1964 Muskegon [Mich.] Chronicle (Jan. 24) 8: If you're going to "bomb"
> > around...with the teen-agers, you'll have to be "hep" to their
> > lingo....Zorch - refers to some kind of movement, the car zorched out!
> >
> > 2000 Times-Picayune (N.O.) (June 16) "Lagniappe" 18:  The doctor throws a
> > switch, jagged lines of lightening [sic] zorch from helmet to helmet.
> >
> > 2007 Jack Broughton _Rupert Red Two_ (St. Paul. Minn.: Zenith) 194:
> > Ed...with the throttle wide open, zorched over the top of the hill.
> >
> > 2. to  harm seriously; destroy (as by a burst of energy or electricity).
> >
> > 1958 Julian May _There’s Adventure in Rockets_ (Chi.: Popular Mechanics
> > Press) 42: You could've got zorched, but good.
> >
> > 1984 Boston Globe  (Nov. 11) 12: He zorched his academic career.
> >
> > 1986 Austin American-Statesman (Dec. 7) G-8: Recover, re-enter data of
> > ZORCHED floppies.
> >
> > 1991 Tulare [Calif.] Advance-Register (Jan. 18) 13:  Zorched by Zarches,
> > Spaceman Spiff's crippled craft crashes on Planet Plootarg.
> >
> > 2001 _Business Week_ (Apr. 23) 12: It makes no backup copies of the
> > message, and can be set so that a message is destroyed ("zorched," in
> > SafeMessage lingo) within a time set by the sender.
> >
> > As interj., 'buzz!; zap!' Rare.
> >
> > 2008 Georgia Times-Union (Brunswick, Ga.) (Nov. 10 (Mandarin Sun Sec.)
> 10:
> > I like the jellyfish buzzing around. The jellyfish go "Zorch! zap! zarc!"
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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