Date:  Wed, 28 Jan 1998 08:27:54 -0500
From:  Alan Baragona <baragonasa[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]VAX.VMI.EDU>
Subject: Re: "zephyr" (= nothing)

Scott Paauw wrote:
>
> Gerald Cohen wrote:
> >
> >   I've come across "zephyr" with the meanng "nothing":
> >
> >    _ St. Louis Post-Dispatch_, May l7, l997, p.34/1-3; title: "The Sky
> > Is Not Falling":
> >    "A 150-pound hunk of aluminum...comes hurtling out of space and
> > crashes on downtown's major
> >  artery. And what happens?
> >      Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zephyr. No human pancakes. No busted
> > windshields. [etc.]...."
> >
> >   I have no idea how the semantic development "zephyr" to "nothing"
> > occurred. Can anyone help?
>
> This is just a guess, but it may be confusion with "cipher" (Brit.
> spelling cypher), which of course means zero.

"Cipher" is an interesting suggestion. Another pure guess might be that
it's an extension of the use of "wind" to mean airy nothingness, as in
"Oaths are but words, and words but wind."

Alan