zip wire, n.

zip-wire
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zip-wire_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 2011

# zip wirenoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zip wire mean?

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

This word is used in British English.

### How common is the noun zip wire?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

2017 | 0.13
2018 | 0.12
2019 | 0.11
2020 | 0.12
2021 | 0.11
2022 | 0.092
2023 | 0.094
2024 | 0.097

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

Earliest known use

1970s

The earliest known use of the noun zip wire is in the 1970s.

OED's earliest evidence for zip wire is from 1971, in the Edwardsville Intelligencer (Edwardsville, Illinois).

### Nearby entries

1. zippily, adv. 1924–
2. zippiness, n. 1907–
3. zipping, n. 1868–
4. Zippo, n.¹ 1944–
5. zippo, n.² 1973–
6. zippy, adj. 1889–
7. zip tie, n. 1969–
8. zip-tie, v. 1985–
9. zip top, n. 1926–
10. zip-up, adj. & n. 1927–
11. zip wire, n.1971–
12. zir, pron. 1993–
13. zir, adj. 1993–
14. ziraleet, n. 1794–
15. ziram, n. 1950–
16. zirbal, adj.?a1425–
17. zirbus, n. a1400–
18. zircaloy, n. 1953–
19. zircon, n. 1794–
20. zirconate, n. 1820–
21. zircon blue, n. & adj. 1928–

## Meaning & use

Now chiefly British.

1. 1971–
   An inclined cable or rope stretched between two points down which people slide by means of a suspended pulley, harness, or handle, often as a recreational activity; = zip line n.
   1. 1971

      > There's a 400-foot ‘zip wire’ to glide along.

      Edwardsville (Illinois) Intelligencer 5 June 2/5
   2. 1992

      > The zip wire is a double climbing rope fitted with twin pulleys.

      Guardian (Nexis) 23 April
   3. 2004

      > Zip wires..require you to take a leap of faith in order to go with gravity along an aerial cable slide.

      J. Marais & L. De Speville, Adventure Racing v. 66/2
   British English

## Frequency

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

zip wire is in frequency band 1, which contains words occurring fewer than 0.001 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 wire, n., 1970–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1970 | 0.0004
1980 | 0.0005
1990 | 0.0005
2000 | 0.0005
2010 | 0.0006

### Frequency of zip wire, n., 2017–2024

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Modern frequency series are derived from a corpus of 20 billion words, covering the period from 2017 to the present. The corpus is mainly compiled from online news sources, and covers all major varieties of World English.

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 corpus.

Period | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
2017 | 0.13
2018 | 0.12
2019 | 0.11
2020 | 0.12
2021 | 0.11
2022 | 0.092
2023 | 0.094
2024 | 0.097

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

zip wire, n. was first published in 2011.