Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 16:52:37 CDT From: Mike Picone Subject: zapping I'm back from a long trip to France where I was not on-line (probably nobody noticed). I have a question about "le zapping" that y'all can help me with. The term is very general now in France with the specific meaning of using a remote control to change TV channels. I'm trying to determine if it is a pseudo-Anglicism forged by the French. While we can all "zap" a commercial, I know of no term for this practice as "zapping". The mystery is that the OED (2nd ed) lists it as an Americanism, but quotes only two British newspapers as authorities and furnishes no other attestations of it. Nor is it to be found with this sense in any of the many dictionaries of slang and new words that I have consulted. So, does anyone out there know anything about where "zapping" might be lurking in North America? What terms do you use for this practice, if any? Channel surfing? Others? Thanks! Mike Picone University of Alabama MPICONE[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UA1VM.UA.EDU