zip gun, n.

zip-gun
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zip-gun_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# zip gunnoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zip gun mean?

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

This word is used in North American English.

### How common is the noun zip gun?

About 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1940 | 0.0087
1950 | 0.0086
1960 | 0.0088
1970 | 0.009
1980 | 0.01
1990 | 0.011
2000 | 0.01
2010 | 0.0096

### Where does the noun zip gun come from?

Earliest known use

1910s

The earliest known use of the noun zip gun is in the 1910s.

OED's earliest evidence for zip gun is from 1914, in Athens (Georgia) Banner.

### Nearby entries

1. zip code, n. 1962–
2. zip-code, v. 1962–
3. zip-coded, adj. 1963–
4. zip-coding, n. 1964–
5. zip coon, n. 1833–
6. zip cuff, n. 1995–
7. zip cuff, v. 1996–
8. Zipf, n. 1936–
9. zip fastener, n. 1925–
10. zip fastening, n. & adj. 1925–
11. zip gun, n.1914–
12. Ziph, n. 1834–
13. ziphian, n. & adj. 1896
14. ziphiiform, adj. 1891
15. ziphioid, adj. & n. 1861–
16. zipless, adj. 1922–
17. zip line, n. 1970–
18. zip line, v. 1998–
19. zipliner, n. 1993–
20. zip lining, n.?1983–
21. zip-lipped, adj. 1943–

## Meaning & use

North American.

1. 1914–
   A type of toy gun designed to shoot projectiles by means of a spring or rubber band; (hence) a homemade or makeshift gun.
   1. 1914

      > A donkey party was also enjoyed, the girl's prize being an embroidered handkerchief and the boy's, a ‘Zip’ gun.

      Athens (Georgia) Banner 26 September 2/1
   2. 1946

      > Matias..approached Arcantro with a ‘zip gun’ which fired pellets from a rubber band.

      Newcastle (New South Wales) 26 October 6
   3. 1971

      > I..had thoughts to kill him off with my zip gun but was afraid to.

      B. Malamud, Tenants 103
   4. 1997

      > Sing Sing was recently locked down after bullets and a zip gun were found in the lower mess hall.

      Village Voice (New York) 4 November 8
   gunnery and firearms North American English
   1. zip gun 1914–
      A type of toy gun designed to shoot projectiles by means of a spring or rubber band; (hence) a homemade or makeshift gun.
   2. pipegun 1973–
      A home-made shotgun with a piece of pipe for a barrel.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

zip gun typically occurs about 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zip gun is in frequency band 3, which contains words occurring between 0.01 and 0.1 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 zip gun, n., 1940–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1940 | 0.0087
1950 | 0.0086
1960 | 0.0088
1970 | 0.009
1980 | 0.01
1990 | 0.011
2000 | 0.01
2010 | 0.0096

Originally published as part of the entry for zip, int. & n.¹

zip, int. & n.¹ was revised in March 2021.