bupkis (n.)
also bupkes, bubkis, "nothing." By 1931, possibly by 1919. Said by Partridge Slang to be from the Russian for "beans"; but the sense was understood in American Yiddish slang to be more specifically "goat shit."
"Don't tell me you go to the synagogue, Madge. Hot bubkis, that would be irony steaming from the water-closet." [Maxwell Bodenheim, Duke Herring, 1931.]
Term was popularized in US after being used on an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show ("Bupkis" aired March 10, 1965). Writer Sam Denoff had learned the word from his mother and, not realizing it was considered a swear word, utilized it prominently on the show where it was defined by the characters as "a Yiddish word meaning 'nothing.'" The censors, apparently unfamiliar with the term, allowed it to air. It thus rose into popular use, lacking a sense of cursing
