From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Nil \Nil\ [See {Nill}, verb (used with an object)] Will not. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Nil \Nil\, noun & a. [L., a contr. of nihil.] Nothing; of no account; worthless; -- a term often used for canceling, in accounts or bookkeeping. --A. J. Ellis.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Nil \Nil\, noun (computers) A special value for a variable used in certain computer languages to mean no assigned value, to be distinguished from the value zero. [PJC]
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: a quantity of no importance; "it looked like nothing I had ever seen before"; "reduced to nil all the work we had done"; "we racked up a pathetic goose egg"; "it was all for naught"; "I didn't hear zilch about it" [syn: {nothing}, {nix}, {nada}, {null}, {aught}, {cipher}, {cypher}, {goose egg}, {naught}, {zero}, {zilch}, {zip}]
From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:
NIL /nil/ No. Used in reply to a question, particularly one asked using the '-P' convention. Most hackers assume this derives simply from LISP terminology for 'false' (see also {T}), but NIL as a negative reply was well-established among radio hams decades before the advent of LISP. The historical connection between early hackerdom and the ham radio world was strong enough that this may have been an influence.
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:
1. New Implementation of Lisp. A language intended to be the successor of {MacLisp}. A large {Lisp}, implemented mostly in {VAX} {assembly language}. A forerunner of {Common LISP}. ["NIL: A Perspective", Jon L. White, MACSYMA Users' Conf Proc, 1979]. 2. Network Implementation Language. Strom & Yemini, TJWRC, IBM. Implementation of complex networking protocols in a modular fashion. ["NIL: An Integrated Language and System for Distributed Programming", R. Strom et al, SIGPLAN Notices 18(6):73-82 (June 1983)]. 3. Empty list or False. In {Lisp}, the empty list (or "nil list") is used to represent the {Boolean} value False. This is possible because {Lisp} is not typed. True is represented by the special {atom} "t". 4. Spoken in reply to a question, particularly one asked using the "-P" convention it means "No". Most hackers assume this derives simply from LISP, but NIL meaning "no" was well-established among radio hams decades before LISP existed. The historical connection between early hackerdom and the ham radio world was strong enough that this may have been an influence. [{Jargon File}]
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