zipping, n.

zipping
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zipping_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# zippingnoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zipping mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun zipping. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

### How common is the noun zipping?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1870 | 0.0004
1880 | 0.0005
1890 | 0.0007
1900 | 0.0007
1910 | 0.0011
1920 | 0.0011
1930 | 0.0013
1940 | 0.0015
1950 | 0.0019
1960 | 0.0023
1970 | 0.0031
1980 | 0.0037
1990 | 0.0042
2000 | 0.0048
2010 | 0.0053

### Where does the noun zipping come from?

Earliest known use

1860s

The earliest known use of the noun zipping is in the 1860s.

OED's earliest evidence for zipping is from 1868, in Indianapolis Journal.

### Nearby entries

1. zipper, n. 1923–
2. zipper, v. 1927–
3. zippered, adj. 1926–
4. zipper foot, n. 1938–
5. zipperhead, n. 1967–
6. zipper problem, n. 1985–
7. Zippie, n.¹ 1968–
8. zippie, n.² 1986–
9. zippily, adv. 1924–
10. zippiness, n. 1907–
11. zipping, n.1868–
12. Zippo, n.¹ 1944–
13. zippo, n.² 1973–
14. zippy, adj. 1889–
15. zip tie, n. 1969–
16. zip-tie, v. 1985–
17. zip top, n. 1926–
18. zip-up, adj. & n. 1927–
19. zip wire, n. 1971–
20. zir, pron. 1993–
21. zir, adj. 1993–

## Meaning & use

1. 1868–
   The action of moving briskly with a sharp whining, buzzing, or ripping sound; the sound itself.
   Stressed as ˈzipping.
   1. 1868

      > The roaring of the falls and the zipping of the spiteful wind playing you a doleful march as you go.

      Indianapolis Journal 27 November 6/3
   2. 1881

      > I heard the zipping of bullets in the air close to my head.

      J. M. Batten, Reminisc. Two Years U.S. Navy 72
   3. 2010

      > The poem began with a sound—the zipping of a skirt, the snap of static electricity—and found its form and language from there.

      Poetry vol. 196 66

## Frequency

zipping typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zipping is in frequency band 2, which contains words occurring between 0.001 and 0.01 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands

Frequency data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.

### Frequency of zipping, n., 1870–2010

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Historical frequency series are derived from Google Books Ngrams (version 2), a data set based on the Google Books corpus of several million books printed in English between 1500 and 2010.

The overall frequency for a given word is calculated by summing frequencies for the main form of the word, any plural or inflected forms, and any major spelling variations.

For sets of homographs (distinct entries that share the same word-form, e.g. mole, n.¹, mole, n.², mole, n.³, etc.), we have estimated the frequency of each homograph entry as a fraction of the total Ngrams frequency for the word-form. This may result in inaccuracies.

Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the Google Books corpus.

Decade | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
1870 | 0.0004
1880 | 0.0005
1890 | 0.0007
1900 | 0.0007
1910 | 0.0011
1920 | 0.0011
1930 | 0.0013
1940 | 0.0015
1950 | 0.0019
1960 | 0.0023
1970 | 0.0031
1980 | 0.0037
1990 | 0.0042
2000 | 0.0048
2010 | 0.0053

Originally published as part of the entry for zip, v.¹

zip, v.¹ was revised in March 2021.