Zip

Okay, so I was reading this article, of irrelevant content, and it had this unsurprising line:

And there is no evidence at all — “zero,” “zip,” “nil,” experts said — that combining three or more drugs is appropriate or even effective in children or adults.

First I thought, let's try to be more creative, New York Times staff writers. Those strings of negative adjectives are yawn. But then I noticed that it was the experts were saying zero and zip and nil. And the way they phrased it, it sounds like they found one expert who said zero, one expert who said nil and one expert who said zip.

That last expert is on to something. When was the last time you heard "zip" all by itself? Where does it even come from? It's time to rehabilitate this forgotten adjective.

• I have zip to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.
• Zip man is an island.
• Thou shalt have zip other gods before Me.
• Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you are zip Jack Kennedy.