I didn't have a copy of the original English version, but soon found the relevant passage on the Internet: "Eight - zip! Working in the former Yugoslavia in the mids he also might not have had much contact with the latest American slang - and he also needed to account for why the secretary had failed to understand her boss, so a word with a clear meaning would not have made sense.
On reflection, it's also possible that the translator did understand the new meaning of "zip" but was unable to find a contemporary Slovenian slang word for "nothing" that some people would understand and but others would not - so, to account for the secretary's failure to understand her boss, he turned "nothing" into a meaningless sound that would leave her puzzled, forcing her to ask what it meant. If so, this was a very skillful piece of translation! But he could simply have omitted her question - so I'm inclined to think that, like the secretary in Washington, he really didn't understand what "zip" meant.
Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. What is the origin of the phrase "zero, zip, zilch, nada"? Ask Question. Asked 7 years, 11 months ago. Active 1 year ago. Viewed 71k times. So, the question is: how did this phrase came to be? Improve this question. Sven Yargs k 30 30 gold badges silver badges bronze badges. Add a comment.
Active Oldest Votes. The phrase, with variants, predates Batman: The Animated Series to The repetition is for emphasis and to make a point, and they have a jocular effect which is reminiscent of Monty Python's dead parrot sketch from 'E's not pinin'! Improve this answer. Hugo Hugo 65k 17 17 gold badges silver badges bronze badges.
FumbleFingers: That's clearly an earlier variant of the same thing. Reminds me of the dead parrot sketch. That poor parrot will probably go down in history as the most conclusively dead bird ever. Much deader than the dodo , even putting aside the matter of whether the dodo should be classified as fish, fowl, or good red herring!
John Lawler John Lawler I don't make up these names, honest. They're Haj Ross's responsibility. How are these words related to railway stations? Not to railway stations, but to Bahnhof. It's an idiom in German: Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof. Related synonym strings from — Hugo's excellent answer covers a occurrence of the full-blown phrase "zero, zilch, zip, nada, nothing" as well as a couple of earlier and shorter variants.
From Frederic Wakeman, Mandrake Root [combined snippets]: It didn't seem fair, considering the nilness of the miller's love-offering to his adoring daughter, an offering which was nothing, zero, nada ; and comparing that cipher to the magnitude of the husband's hunger for the wife who never had been able to flee her father's nest. From Harold Sullivan, Trial by Newspaper [combined snippets]: What did the judiciary of Massachusetts do about the destruction of the constitutional guarantee of a fair and impartial trial in the case of Woodward, a fifteen-year-old child when arrested, and an acknowledged mental defective?
Zut, zero, nothing. And we pay them nothing. In fact, it probably costs them plenty of money to give us their time and attention. From "Roger Simon, " O Union, My Union ," in the [Illinois] Daily Illini November 12, : In black and white the Union prints in yet another publicity booklet titled "Why We Are Here": "If the job of the Illinois Union can be summed up in any single sentence, it is, 'to be of service to the students, faculty, staff, guests and alumni of the University.
Synonym strings signifying 'nothing' from — Although the examples I've cited thus far have come from the s, s, and s, earlier instances of strings of three or four synonyms signifying "nothing" do occur. From " The Thermometer ," in the Cambridge [Massachusetts] Chronicle March 12, : Putting tho bulb into the snow and suit, he [Fahrenheit] marked the point to which the mercury, which fills the tube, fell, 0 cipher , zero, nothing ; because, as before said, he thought the amount of heat was nothing.
From " George and the Meter ," in the Wheeling [West Virginia] Daily Intelligencer March 8, : One day a plumber for the gas company brought around a meter and told George to connect it. Conclusions The rhetorical strategy of invoking a thesaurus-like string of synonyms—rather than a single suitable word—to make a point seems peculiarly effective in the case of words that mean "nothing.
Sven Yargs Sven Yargs k 30 30 gold badges silver badges bronze badges. In any case, it still looks as if the meaning of "zip" was very new at the time in English.
Kevin Kevin 7 2 2 bronze badges. No, it is much older. Early sixties, if not before. That a Slovenian translator might not have heard of it at that time is not good evidence that it wasn't common in some places e. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password. Post as a guest Name. Email Required, but never shown.
Featured on Meta. New post summary designs on greatest hits now, everywhere else eventually. Linked 6. Zip was recorded at the start of the 20th century. Zip, zilch, nada! This is a familiar phrase used when a task or favor done for someone else was nothing—i. Hopefully clearing your schedule on National Nothing Day will be no big deal! Diddly-squat was used at least by the s and is a variant of the older s doodly-squat. Americans borrowed this word from Jewish communities.
Across the pond, the British have quite a bit of slang of their own when they want to say nothing. One of them, bugger-all , is considered somewhat vulgar and is used in a pinch just to show how upset you are. This is another Britishism Americans might not be familiar with. Say sweet Fanny Adams in place of an expletive to be much more polite.
However, the F in Fanny and A in Adams suggest euphemisms. This is used for someone who is no good, or stands for nothing. Origin of nada From Spanish. Words related to nada nonentity , nil , blank , naught , nobody , nothing , nought , nullity , squat , zilch , zip , diddly-squat , doodly-squat , iota , jack , ounce , shred , whit , aught , bottom. How to use nada in a sentence Nothing, nada , niente, rien, or any word you want to use for having no connection.
Warrior of the Dawn Howard Carleton Browne. Cedar Creek Elizabeth Hely Walshe.
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