Hello everybody, how are things with you today? I’ve just seen this phrase and I wonder how popular the expression I’m too zapped is:
I am too zapped to help you right now.
My dictionary says zapped means exhausted, tired, drained of energy. But how often is this word used and who would use it when?
Thank you all!
Frank
Hi FrankU,
It’s one of those so-called polite words describing a state of exhaustion in place of the more vulgar ones, although I haven’t heard that often in the sense you give. I think it’s more common as a verb zap that describes a sudden action like for example using a rolled up newspaper to kill a fly or heat something quickly in a microwave. I suppose it came into being in the electronic field when you would destroy figures in a game on an electronic toy. The word zapper is often used to describe the remote control for a tv.
Alan
Hello Alan, thanks so much for your immediate explanation. And what about the word zip? I mean is it used often? There is also the word zipper, isn’t it? To zip means to move fast and with a hissing sound but how often is it used?
Hi again,
A zip (noun) is quite different as it is a device often in clothes or bags that can be opened and closed because metal teeth link into each other and can open or close the gap. This can be a zip or a zipper.
Zip as a verb means go by/along very fast as in: Nowadays trains that don’t stop at all the stations simply zip by.
Alan
I think that in some situations zapped can mean drunk or stoned on drugs. However, in those situations, at least where I live, it would be more normal to say someone is blitzed.
So, it seems blitz is another German word that is used in English? How many of those German words are there in the modern English language?
Nicole
Spanish has adopted the word ‘zapping’ in the expression ‘hacer zapping’ (θapiŋ): to do zapping. It sounds like a kind of sport (well, it is a great favourite with couch potatoes) and, as in English, means to switch or change TV channels with a remote control (usually non-stop and aimlessly).
Whether to watch lots of different channels at once, to avoid commercials or to conjure up THE programme you ingenuously keep on hoping for, what is certain is that, more often than not, you end up in a catatonic or zombie-like state, depressed at having wasted a valuable time from your precious life.
The remote control has still kept its good old Spanish name: ‘el mando a distancia’.
Talking about sports, we also say:
‘Hacer footing’ for jogging and
‘Hacer puenting’ (Spanglish, from the word for bridge) for bunjee jumping.
There is a partial list here:
german.about.com/library/blvoc_gerloan.htm
My family doesn’t speak German (other than me), but we have several more German words left over from generations past. Most of them are not known to Germans anymore (other than historical linguists), and some have changed their meanings. My family would say:
“Clean your schnipplings off the floor!”
“Let the dog outside to sprudel.”
“It’s too late. There’s already sprudel on the carpet.”
“Trim your beard. You’ve got a tuss hanging down.”