meaning - English Language Usage Stack Exchange Bupkis—beans, but always meant to be something worthless Like, “What will I get for all my hard work on this book? Bupkis!” From Evan Morris, The Word Detective (2001): The word you’re looking for is not butkis It's bupkes (also spelled bubkis, bupkis, and bubkes), which is Yiddish for "beans," or, figuratively, "nothing, nada, zilch
What is the origin of the phrase zero, zip, zilch, nada? The phrase, with variants, predates Batman: The Animated Series (1992 to 1995) The earliest result in Google Books is a snippet of Me, Minsky Max by Bruce Pollock (Page 221, 1978):
Polite version of They dont give us jacksh*t boo – bumpkiss – bupkis – dick – diddly-squat – f**k all – fu**le – goose egg – jack – jack sh!t – jack squat – nunya – sh!t – squat – zilch – zip – zippo Not all of these would fit your purpose If I had to choose, in a semi-professional situation where I would not want to swear, I might go with
meaning - What does TL;DR mean and how is it used? - English Language . . . The OED has bupkis of course To clarify the likely intended meaning (in response to a question below): if 'tl;dr' is a one-word reply to a lengthy post then it is likely to be intended as a riposte or at best a rebuke to the person who posted the lengthy text, whereas
word choice - What is the name of the symbols - and gt;? +1, I like that this is the first answer to address the multiple Unicode code points involved However, I think you might mention that regardless of the characters' names or official prescriptions for use, the less-than and greater-than signs are commonly used as a type of brackets, probably because they can easily be typed and their display is more widely supported than that of the other symbols
How did the letter Z come to be associated with sleeping snoring? In fact it has made itself into its own meaning - it no longer needs explanation and is generally accepted world wide as a representation of sleeping The reason it even became what it now is, is almost lost, such as the meaning of the wrong end of the stick I’ll let you figure that one out
What do we call the “rd” in “3ʳᵈ” and the “th” in “9ᵗʰ”? @WS2 In speech, very nearly always In writing, much less so I think what may be going on is that one just assumes that “June 1” is pronounced “June First”, or “4 July” as “the Fourth of July”
grammar - Understanding as of, as at, and as from - English . . . It is certainly an answer There are three conflicting meanings in play, licensed by certain dictionaries 'As of' is ill-defined Any answer claiming that only one meaning is licensed is incorrect You mean 'I don't like this answer ' –
meaning - How does pussy come to mean coward? - English Language . . . That of female genitalia is attested as early as 1699, but it's not considered for the sense meaning "coward" The other one, which I copy below, is the purported source of pussy meaning "coward" Basically, using a pet name usually given to women, like sweetheart, princess, etc to refer to a man mockingly