Possible Origin of the Word ZORK -- Li'l Abner, April 21 1935

[DavidD]

So I've been reading through collections of old comics and I stumbled across something interesting recently...

 

In his April 21, 1935 Sunday Li'l Abner comic, Al Cap runs a second spin off story alongside the Abner tale.  This side story features a character names Washable Jones who is off on a series of weird dream adventures.  On this day, though, Washable runs into ZORK - some sort of huge, man-eating monster thing that lives in dungeon.

 

I was curious now, as I didn't remember anyone ever explaining the origin of the word "Zork," other than a vague "MIT jargon."  I did some internet research and all could find was speculation that it was derived from "zorch" in the 1959 TMRC dictionary.  This, however, seems like the first print use of the phrase.

 

Given that Capp introduced all sorts of weird things into pop culture and vocabulary (Sadie Hawkins, the Schmoo), I'm tempted to believe that the origin of "zork" as an "MIT nonsense word" is from Li'l Abner.

 

Any thoughts?

 

“Li’l Abner: The Complete Dailies and Color Sundays Vol. 1” (978-1600106118)

 

Edited August 19, 2023 by DavidD
Adding book info

[Pitfall Harry]

It is an interesting coincidence, but I doubt it is anything other than just that.

 

 

-Ben

[DavidD]

3 hours ago, Pitfall Harry said:

It is an interesting coincidence, but I doubt it is anything other than just that.

 

 

-Ben

While I'm not saying that the Zork folks put the word in the game because they read the comic -- I am curious if the fake word "zork" was introduced in the comic.  Various words/terms/phrases/etc. emerged from Li'l Abner, and I could see a nonsense word sticking around and passed on second or third hand.

 

I'm not sure how you'd determine that... has anyone ever found more specific reasons given for the name "zork"?

 

(An earlier attempt to unearth the history of "zork" -- https://nickm.com/post/2010/01/a-note-on-the-word-zork/ )

Edited May 12 by DavidD

[cwilkson]

I don't know where the term originally came from at MIT but it was common slang on campus used to described a broken or unfinished computer program.

It was still in use when I was there in the 90's-00's but I know it went back at least to the 70's according to some profs who were student hackers back then.

[lymontyme]

Now I'm curious if "zorch" in that model train dictionary is the origin of the ammo in Chex Quest. It does use the word attack:

"ZORCH: to attack with an inverse heat sink."