savvy experiment: zilch
Today's word is a simple one. The meaning is very simple. According to Merriam Webster it means:
As far as distribution, we see that it is most common in fiction and least common in academic sources. However, it has a decent showing in spoken, magazine and newspaper sources. Surprisingly this word has few collocates, and similar words such as "nothing, none, zippo or zero" don't make any appearances. A verb that it commonly used with is "know". As in "He knew zilch about being a father."
The top collocate is "total" with only three instances with two of them being quotes from President Trump. Not to be political, but Mr. Trump, is famous for word combinations that native speakers often balk at such as "perfect phone call" and "stable genius". This may be my personal bias but "total zilch" is another such instance. It sounds rather contradictory to my ears.
In conclusion, this is a word that's popularity is rising. It is a good word to express the fact that there is absolutely nothing and it is most frequently used as a noun and can be used express not knowing anything about a particular subject, so long as it is kept out of academic contexts. Let me know if you spot this word in the wild!
Definition of zilch
They also provide an example.
Most of these areas have been leased and drilled, with zilch results.— Tim Bradner, Anchorage Daily News, "Offshore oil leasing evokes sense of deja vu in Alaska," 17 Jan. 2018Here is another example provided by wordnik.com for the noun form.
There are MANY mentally ill prisoners in the prison system – and I can assure you that absolutely zilch is being done for them.
Surprisingly, this word has been in increased usage since the 1960's.
If this trend continues, this word will increase in popularity. How can we use this word? According to the Corpus of Contemporary American English Database, the word is primarily used as a noun and has no instances of any adjectival uses.
As far as distribution, we see that it is most common in fiction and least common in academic sources. However, it has a decent showing in spoken, magazine and newspaper sources. Surprisingly this word has few collocates, and similar words such as "nothing, none, zippo or zero" don't make any appearances. A verb that it commonly used with is "know". As in "He knew zilch about being a father."
The top collocate is "total" with only three instances with two of them being quotes from President Trump. Not to be political, but Mr. Trump, is famous for word combinations that native speakers often balk at such as "perfect phone call" and "stable genius". This may be my personal bias but "total zilch" is another such instance. It sounds rather contradictory to my ears.
In conclusion, this is a word that's popularity is rising. It is a good word to express the fact that there is absolutely nothing and it is most frequently used as a noun and can be used express not knowing anything about a particular subject, so long as it is kept out of academic contexts. Let me know if you spot this word in the wild!
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