zippie, n.²

zippie
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zippie_n2%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 2021

# zippienoun2

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zippie mean?

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

This word is used in British English.

### How common is the noun zippie?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1980 | 0.0015
1990 | 0.0015
2000 | 0.0015
2010 | 0.0015

### How is the noun zippie pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɪpi/
ZIP-ee

#### U.S. English

/ˈzɪpi/
ZIP-ee

### Where does the noun zippie come from?

Earliest known use

1980s

The earliest known use of the noun zippie is in the 1980s.

OED's earliest evidence for zippie is from 1986, in Encycl. Psychedelica.

zippie is apparently formed within English, by blending.

Etymons: zip n.1, hippie n.

### Nearby entries

1. ziplock, n. 1928–
2. zipped, adj. 1931–
3. zippeite, n. 1850–
4. zipper, n. 1923–
5. zipper, v. 1927–
6. zippered, adj. 1926–
7. zipper foot, n. 1938–
8. zipperhead, n. 1967–
9. zipper problem, n. 1985–
10. Zippie, n.¹ 1968–
11. zippie, n.²1986–
12. zippily, adv. 1924–
13. zippiness, n. 1907–
14. zipping, n. 1868–
15. Zippo, n.¹ 1944–
16. zippo, n.² 1973–
17. zippy, adj. 1889–
18. zip tie, n. 1969–
19. zip-tie, v. 1985–
20. zip top, n. 1926–
21. zip-up, adj. & n. 1927–

## Etymology

### Summary

Apparently formed within English, by blending.
Etymons: zip n.1, hippie n.
Apparently a blend of zip n.1 and hippie n.

Compare earlier Zippie n.1 and Yippie n.…
Apparently a blend of zip n.1 and hippie n.

Compare earlier Zippie n.1 and Yippie n.

### Notes

The initial sound appears sometimes to have been interpreted as reflecting the voiced final /z/ of Nineties, and this could have contributed to the word's origin:

1. 1987

   > Welcome to the official organ of the Zippies ('90s Hippies, geddit?).

   Encycl. Psychedelica vol. 5 182/1

The name was subsequently interpreted as < the initial letters of Zen-Inspired Pronoia Pagans (or Pronoia Professionals, or Professional Pagans).

## Meaning & use

Originally and chiefly British.

1. 1986–
   A member of a cultural group associated with the British rave and festival scene of the late 1980s and 1990s, characterized by an enthusiasm for technology and an interest in ecological issues and unorthodox spiritual and metaphysical ideas. Cf. techno-hippie n., techno-pagan n.
   1. 1986

      > Zippies (90s Hippies) suggest that the key concept, which can instantly resolve the seeming complexity to much more manageable proportion, lies in the general polarities within each human psyche between 60s Hippy and Technoperson.

      Encycl. Psychedelica vol. 1 25/1
   2. 1990

      > The Mandelbrot Set, as any Zippie could tell you, is a computer-generated pattern derived from chaos science.

      Sunday Times 7 October v. 5/5
   3. 1994

      > With the launch of Clark's Megatripopolis club at London's Heaven last October, complete with laser shows, virtual reality booths and psychedelic trance music, the zippies came fully into being.

      Independent on Sunday 24 July (Review Supplement) 11/4
   4. 2014

      > Then there were ‘the zippies’, a techno-hippie subculture that made the cover of Wired in 1994.

      New York Times 19 October (Late edition) 76/1
   British English

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɪpi/
ZIP-ee

### U.S. English

/ˈzɪpi/
ZIP-ee

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- ɬrhingyll
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛtl/ but /ˈpɛtl̩i/.

##### Vowels

- iːfleece
- ihappy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- atrap, bath
- ɑːstart, palm, bath
- ɒlot
- ɔːthought, force
- ʌstrut
- ʊfoot
- uːgoose
- əletter
- əːnurse
- ɪənear
- ɛːsquare
- ʊəcure
- eɪface
- ʌɪpride
- aʊmouth
- əʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ãgratin
- ɒ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)

##### Other symbols

- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye*
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

* /d/ also represents a 'tapped' /t/ as in

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛd(ə)l/ but /ˈpɛdl̩i/.

##### Vowels

- ifleece, happy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- ætrap, bath
- ɑlot, palm, cloth, thought
- ɑrstart
- ɔcloth, thought
- ɔrnorth, force
- ʊfoot
- ugoose
- əstrut, comma
- ərnurse, letter
- ɪ(ə)rnear
- ɛ(ə)rsquare
- ʊ(ə)rcure
- eɪface
- aɪpride
- aʊmouth
- oʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ɑ̃gratin
- æ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)

##### Other symbols

- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

Simple text respell breaks words into syllables, separated by a hyphen. The syllable which carries the primary stress is written in capital letters. This key covers both British and U.S. English Simple Text Respell.

##### Consonants

b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w and z have their standard English values

- gguy
- jjay
- yyore
- chchore
- khloch
- shshore
- ththaw
- dhthee
- zhbeige

##### Vowels

- atrap
- ahpalm
- airsquare
- arstart
- arrcarry (British only)
- awthought
- ayface
- a(ng)gratin
- edress
- eefleece
- eerdeer
- errmerry
- ikit
- ighpride
- irrmirror
- olot (British only)
- ohgoat
- oogoose
- oorcure
- orforce
- orrsorry (British only)
- owmouth
- oyvoice
- o(ng)salon
- ustrut
- uhletter
- urnurse
- urrhurry
- uufoot

## Forms

### Variant forms

#### 1.

1. 1900s–
   zippie, zippy

#### 2. Also with capital initial.

## Frequency

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

zippie 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 zippie, n.², 1980–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1980 | 0.0015
1990 | 0.0015
2000 | 0.0015
2010 | 0.0015

zippie, n.² was first published in March 2021.

zippie, n.² was last modified in December 2023.