| Author |
Message |
R H Draney
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 7:08 am
Post subject: Re: Zap |
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Steve Hayes filted:
| Quote: |
Mark Brader wrote:
zap
What's it's origin?
I have a mental picture of a comic strip with a frog's tongue going out to a
fly, with the accompanying sound effect - ZAP!
From there it was an easy progression to zapping aliens in video arcades in
the 1970s (therefore 1940s in the US, according to the Kojak conjecture).
Perhaps it started at Pearl Harbour.
|
It stands for "Zero and Add Packed"...it's a mainframe computer instruction that
loads a decimal value into a data field....r |
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Steve Hayes
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 7:08 am
Post subject: Zap |
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On Wed, 22 Jun 2005 10:48:03 +0100, Charles Riggs <chriggs@éircom.net> wrote:
| Quote: | On Wed, 22 Jun 2005 07:27:06 GMT, the Omrud <usenet.omrud@gmail.com
wrote:
Jukka Aho spake thusly:
Mark Brader wrote:
zap
That took me aback for a moment; to me it means using the remote
control to *stop* seeing something, such as a commercial, not to
select it.
Thanks for the correction. What you have just witnessed is an example of
a non-native speaker first seeing a word used in context somewhere, then
adding it in his active vocabulary without fully understanding its
meaning.
Hold your horses with your backing down there. To me in the UK, "to
zap" means to point a remote control device at the thing it controls
and operate one of the buttons. I don't recognise that it has to
have any specific effect.
Odd. Would most Britons assign that meaning to it? To zap something is
to destroy it.
|
What's it's origin?
I have a mental picture of a comic strip with a frog's tongue going out to a
fly, with the accompanying sound effect - ZAP!
From there it was an easy progression to zapping aliens in video arcades in
the 1970s (therefore 1940s in the US, according to the Kojak conjecture).
Perhaps it started at Pearl Harbour.
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk |
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Steve Hayes
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 12:42 pm
Post subject: Re: Zap |
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On 22 Jun 2005 19:37:27 -0700, R H Draney <dadoctah@spamcop.net> wrote:
| Quote: | It stands for "Zero and Add Packed"...it's a mainframe computer instruction that
loads a decimal value into a data field....r
|
Tell that to the Zapatistas.
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk |
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the Omrud
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 6:50 pm
Post subject: Re: The UK only has local papers... and TV channels |
|
|
R H Draney spake thusly:
| Quote: | Skitt filted:
Charles Riggs wrote:
the Omrud wrote:
Hold your horses with your backing down there. To me in the UK, "to
zap" means to point a remote control device at the thing it controls
and operate one of the buttons. I don't recognise that it has to
have any specific effect.
Odd. Would most Britons assign that meaning to it? To zap something is
to destroy it.
Yeah, like those bug zappers do. ZAP! Bug gone.
He's not dead, merely moved to a higher channel....
Among people old enough to remember when televisions *and* programming only came
in black and white, the remote control may be called "the clicker"...that's when
"don't touch that dial" actually meant something....r
|
I remember seeing a clicker in the US (Piscataway to be exact), in
1975. It was an astonishing thing - without getting up from one's
chair, one could change the channel! This household also had an
electrically controlled aerial - there was a dial in the house with
which you could set the compass point towards which the aerial was
aimed.
--
David
=====
replace usenet with the |
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Frances Kemmish
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 6:55 pm
Post subject: Re: The UK only has local papers... and TV channels |
|
|
the Omrud wrote:
| Quote: | I remember seeing a clicker in the US (Piscataway to be exact), in
1975. It was an astonishing thing - without getting up from one's
chair, one could change the channel!
|
As I recall, it was in 1975 that the dial on our TV stopped working. We
had to change the channels with a screwdriver. It was quite a
disincentive to channel-surfing, even when there were only three
channels to choose from.
Fran |
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Brian Wickham
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 7:16 pm
Post subject: Re: Zap |
|
|
On Thu, 23 Jun 2005 04:02:45 +0200, Steve Hayes
<hayesmstw@hotmail.com> wrote:
| Quote: |
What's it's origin?
I have a mental picture of a comic strip with a frog's tongue going out to a
fly, with the accompanying sound effect - ZAP!
From there it was an easy progression to zapping aliens in video arcades in
the 1970s (therefore 1940s in the US, according to the Kojak conjecture).
Perhaps it started at Pearl Harbour.
|
Growing up in the US I always thought it was the sound that a Buck
Rogers ray gun makes when fired, hence it comes from the comic strips.
(That should be easy enough to research, for someone so inclined.) It
then progresses in a straight line to TV remote controls, which in
their early days were humorously considered a form of "ray gun". If
you are not happy with a program you are watching you can zap it, but
only by using the remote. Going to the TV and using the controls is,
technically, not zapping.
In the US, "zapping" something turns it off or makes it go away. We
zap TV commercials in recorded material by either speeding through
them or by having a device that paused the recording during the
broadcast of the commercial.
Brian Wickham |
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Poet Fury
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 7:57 pm
Post subject: Re: Zap |
|
|
On 22 Jun 2005 19:37:27 -0700, R H Draney wrote:
| Quote: | It stands for "Zero and Add Packed"...it's a mainframe computer instruction that
loads a decimal value into a data field....r
|
Unless you're doing database stuff using dBase or FoxPro, in which "zap"
just means "wipe out the contents of a table".
--
http://www.newvague.com/tdis/index.html
Of course it's music. It has notes in it, doesn't it? |
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david
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 8:43 pm
Post subject: Re: Zap |
|
|
Steve Hayes wrote:
| Quote: | On Wed, 22 Jun 2005 10:48:03 +0100, Charles Riggs <chriggs@�ircom.net> wrote:
On Wed, 22 Jun 2005 07:27:06 GMT, the Omrud <usenet.omrud@gmail.com
wrote:
Jukka Aho spake thusly:
Mark Brader wrote:
zap
That took me aback for a moment; to me it means using the remote
control to *stop* seeing something, such as a commercial, not to
select it.
Thanks for the correction. What you have just witnessed is an example of
a non-native speaker first seeing a word used in context somewhere, then
adding it in his active vocabulary without fully understanding its
meaning.
Hold your horses with your backing down there. To me in the UK, "to
zap" means to point a remote control device at the thing it controls
and operate one of the buttons. I don't recognise that it has to
have any specific effect.
Odd. Would most Britons assign that meaning to it? To zap something is
to destroy it.
What's it's origin?
I have a mental picture of a comic strip with a frog's tongue going out to a
fly, with the accompanying sound effect - ZAP!
From there it was an easy progression to zapping aliens in video arcades in
the 1970s (therefore 1940s in the US, according to the Kojak conjecture).
Perhaps it started at Pearl Harbour.
Zap is the sound made by a Tesla coil attached to a "Jacob's Ladder" |
(two wires diverging from their attachment to the coil). P.F. Nowlan
used zap in 1928 in Armageddon 2419 AD. Nowlan wrote about Anthony
Rogers, who was later called Buck, who often zapped things with his ray gun. |
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Areff
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 9:09 pm
Post subject: Re: The UK only has local papers... and TV channels |
|
|
Jason Kirk wrote:
| Quote: | On Tue, 21 Jun 2005 17:53:08 +0000, Areff wrote:
As a matter of AmE usage, I'd speak of a *station* as being an affiliate
of a national television network, rather than of the *news programming* of
a local station, regardless of the possibilities.
In my experience the only time the identity of the station - as distinct
from the network - really comes into play is with the news programming.
|
That's generally true today (it wasn't *always* true of course).
| Quote: | If
I was watching Friends I'd say which network you saw it on, but if I was
talking about the local use you'd use the station name instead.
|
Right. But aren't you sort of agreeing with whatever I said to you in the
previous posting?
| Quote: | I can't determine whether you're British or American or other. Your
name is Jason, rather than, say, Nigel, Trevor, Ringo, Clive, Doc Robin,
Simon, Colin, Hamish, Dafydd, Huw, Graeme, Mick, or Ron, which suggests
you're American.
Nope. Brit. I just happen to work in America.
|
Lots of you here, taking advantage of the low taxes. Ron's up in Canada,
taking advantage of the high taxes. |
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Pat Durkin
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 10:40 pm
Post subject: Re: Zap |
|
|
"Brian Wickham" <bwickham@NO~SPAM.nyc.rr.com> wrote in message
news:rddlb1hiihgkd3bk97cbu2hd3gri15507p@4ax.com...
| Quote: | On Thu, 23 Jun 2005 04:02:45 +0200, Steve Hayes
hayesmstw@hotmail.com> wrote:
What's it's origin?
I have a mental picture of a comic strip with a frog's tongue going out
to a
fly, with the accompanying sound effect - ZAP!
From there it was an easy progression to zapping aliens in video arcades
in
the 1970s (therefore 1940s in the US, according to the Kojak conjecture).
Perhaps it started at Pearl Harbour.
Growing up in the US I always thought it was the sound that a Buck
Rogers ray gun makes when fired, hence it comes from the comic strips.
(That should be easy enough to research, for someone so inclined.) It
then progresses in a straight line to TV remote controls, which in
their early days were humorously considered a form of "ray gun". If
you are not happy with a program you are watching you can zap it, but
only by using the remote. Going to the TV and using the controls is,
technically, not zapping.
In the US, "zapping" something turns it off or makes it go away. We
zap TV commercials in recorded material by either speeding through
them or by having a device that paused the recording during the
broadcast of the commercial.
It may be local, but I have often heard people use "zap" to refer to doing a |
quick warm-up of coffee, soup, etc. in the microwave. That would have been
while I was at work, 13 years ago. About the same time "burn it" was used
to refer to "make a photocopy of it".
Was the "zapper" bug-killer already mentioned in this thread?
Hmmm. I will have to read up on this. There is the Clark Zapper and the
Zappicator.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=sbc-web&tab=&p=Zapper |
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Murray Arnow
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 11:12 pm
Post subject: Re: Zap |
|
|
Pat Durkin wrote:
| Quote: |
Brian Wickham wrote: in message
Steve Hayes wrote:
What's it's origin?
I have a mental picture of a comic strip with a frog's tongue going out
to a
fly, with the accompanying sound effect - ZAP!
From there it was an easy progression to zapping aliens in video arcades
in
the 1970s (therefore 1940s in the US, according to the Kojak conjecture).
Perhaps it started at Pearl Harbour.
Growing up in the US I always thought it was the sound that a Buck
Rogers ray gun makes when fired, hence it comes from the comic strips.
(That should be easy enough to research, for someone so inclined.) It
then progresses in a straight line to TV remote controls, which in
their early days were humorously considered a form of "ray gun". If
you are not happy with a program you are watching you can zap it, but
only by using the remote. Going to the TV and using the controls is,
technically, not zapping.
In the US, "zapping" something turns it off or makes it go away. We
zap TV commercials in recorded material by either speeding through
them or by having a device that paused the recording during the
broadcast of the commercial.
It may be local, but I have often heard people use "zap" to refer to doing a
quick warm-up of coffee, soup, etc. in the microwave. That would have been
while I was at work, 13 years ago. About the same time "burn it" was used
to refer to "make a photocopy of it".
|
I first heard "zap" used to describe microwave-oven heating at least 25 years
ago. |
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Pat Durkin
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 12:36 am
Post subject: Re: Zap |
|
|
"Murray Arnow" <arnow@iname.com> wrote in message
news:d9eqii$29e$2@e250.ripco.com...
| Quote: | Pat Durkin wrote:
Brian Wickham wrote: in message
Steve Hayes wrote:
What's it's origin?
I have a mental picture of a comic strip with a frog's tongue going
out
to a
fly, with the accompanying sound effect - ZAP!
From there it was an easy progression to zapping aliens in video
arcades
in
the 1970s (therefore 1940s in the US, according to the Kojak
conjecture).
Perhaps it started at Pearl Harbour.
Growing up in the US I always thought it was the sound that a Buck
Rogers ray gun makes when fired, hence it comes from the comic strips.
(That should be easy enough to research, for someone so inclined.) It
then progresses in a straight line to TV remote controls, which in
their early days were humorously considered a form of "ray gun". If
you are not happy with a program you are watching you can zap it, but
only by using the remote. Going to the TV and using the controls is,
technically, not zapping.
In the US, "zapping" something turns it off or makes it go away. We
zap TV commercials in recorded material by either speeding through
them or by having a device that paused the recording during the
broadcast of the commercial.
It may be local, but I have often heard people use "zap" to refer to
doing a
quick warm-up of coffee, soup, etc. in the microwave. That would have
been
while I was at work, 13 years ago. About the same time "burn it" was
used
to refer to "make a photocopy of it".
I first heard "zap" used to describe microwave-oven heating at least 25
years
ago.
Well, yeah. Thanks for the confirmation. I had started working in that |
office 12 years earlier, so that yields a 25-year life-span, at the very
least. I wonder how soon after the commercial retailing of MW ovens the
term developed. |
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Jason Kirk
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 12:40 am
Post subject: Re: The UK only has local papers... and TV channels |
|
|
On Tue, 21 Jun 2005 17:53:08 +0000, Areff wrote:
| Quote: | As a matter of AmE usage, I'd speak of a *station* as being an affiliate
of a national television network, rather than of the *news programming* of
a local station, regardless of the possibilities.
|
In my experience the only time the identity of the station - as distinct
from the network - really comes into play is with the news programming. If
I was watching Friends I'd say which network you saw it on, but if I was
talking about the local use you'd use the station name instead.
| Quote: | I can't determine whether you're British or American or other. Your
name is Jason, rather than, say, Nigel, Trevor, Ringo, Clive, Doc Robin,
Simon, Colin, Hamish, Dafydd, Huw, Graeme, Mick, or Ron, which suggests
you're American.
|
Nope. Brit. I just happen to work in America.
-Jason |
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Sara Lorimer
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 1:26 am
Post subject: Re: The UK only has local papers... and TV channels |
|
|
Frances Kemmish <fkemmish@optonline.net> wrote:
| Quote: | As I recall, it was in 1975 that the dial on our TV stopped working. We
had to change the channels with a screwdriver. It was quite a
disincentive to channel-surfing, even when there were only three
channels to choose from.
|
The TV we bought in 1976 had little heat-sensitive buttons for changing
the channel. My mother, who makes excellent pie crusts, could never get
the channel to change. (I think we had only three channels, too.)
--
SML |
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Laura F. Spira
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 1:27 am
Post subject: Re: The UK only has local papers... and TV channels |
|
|
Sara Lorimer wrote:
| Quote: | Frances Kemmish <fkemmish@optonline.net> wrote:
As I recall, it was in 1975 that the dial on our TV stopped working. We
had to change the channels with a screwdriver. It was quite a
disincentive to channel-surfing, even when there were only three
channels to choose from.
The TV we bought in 1976 had little heat-sensitive buttons for changing
the channel. My mother, who makes excellent pie crusts, could never get
the channel to change. (I think we had only three channels, too.)
|
As they say, cold hands, fine pastry.
--
Laura
(emulate St. George for email) |
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