zap, int.

zap
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zap_int%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1986; not fully revised

# zapinterjection

## Earlier version

- zap, int. in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the interjection zap mean?

There are two meanings listed in OED's entry for the interjection zap. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

#### Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

### How common is the interjection zap?

About 0.03occurrences per million words in modern written English

1920 | 0.0011
1930 | 0.0022
1940 | 0.0046
1950 | 0.0077
1960 | 0.013
1970 | 0.018
1980 | 0.024
1990 | 0.027
2000 | 0.031
2010 | 0.035

### How is the interjection zap pronounced?

#### British English

/zap/
zap

#### U.S. English

/zæp/
zap

### Where does the interjection zap come from?

Earliest known use

1920s

The earliest known use of the interjection zap is in the 1920s.

OED's earliest evidence for zap is from 1929, in the writing of P. F. Nowlan.

zap is an imitative or expressive formation.

### Nearby entries

1. Zantedeschia, n. 1836–
2. ZANU, n. 1963–
3. zany, n. & adj. 1582–
4. zany, v. 1602–1894
5. zanyish, adj. 1843–
6. zanyism, n. 1823–
7. zanyship, n. 1766–1839
8. Zanzibari, n. & adj. 1882–
9. zap, n. 1968–
10. zap, v. 1942–
11. zap, int.1929–
12. Zapata, n. 1962–
13. zapateado, n. 1845–
14. Zapatism, n. 1911–
15. Zapatismo, n. 1913–
16. Zapatist, n. & adj. 1911–
17. Zapatista, n. & adj. 1911–
18. zapote, n. 1842–
19. Zapotec, n. & adj. 1797–
20. zappe, v. c1600
21. zapped, adj. 1962–

## Etymology

### Summary

An imitative or expressive formation.
Echoic.

## Meaning & use

slang (originally U.S.).

1. 1.
   1929–
   Used to represent the sound of a ray gun, laser, bullet, etc.; also figurative, expressing any sudden or dramatic event.
   1. 1929

      > Ahead of me was one of those golden dragon Mongols, with a deadly disintegrator ray... Br-r-rr-r-z-zzz-zap.

      P. F. Nowlan in Washington Post 7 May 16/3
   2. 1962

      > The jokester, pretending to be a creature from outer space, pointed his cosmic ray gun (finger) at his friend's genitals and exclaimed, ‘Zap! You're sterile.’

      American Speech vol. 37 288
   3. 1967

      > Shouting idiotic things and going, ‘Whoop,’ ‘Zap,’ and ‘Yap,’ all the time.

      L. Deighton, Only when I Larf (1968) xii. 160
   4. 1968

      > Bang! Zap! Pow! With laser beams and cracking doomsday machines, the deadly-serious super-heroes.

      Maclean's March 77
   5. 1970

      > I'm against the war in Vietnam. But I'm not among the people who say let's stop Vietnam, zap.

      Daily Telegraph 15 May (Colour Supplement) 34/4
   6. 1971

      > Getting down to a blow job, she suddenly produces a razor and zap—the man bleeding and gushing blood, is screaming on the floor.

      Frendz 21 May 17/1
   7. 1974

      > We have been told..we needn't worry, the sections are not being enforced. Then zap, another homosexual is denied entry for being honest.

      Globe & Mail (Toronto) 12 September 7/2
   8. 1978

      > The solution receives a positive charge, the truck a negative charge. Zap! The primer and the GMC are joined with a magnetic-like bond.

      Fortune 18 December 101 (advertisement)
   9. 1985

      > A staff meeting will be Wick just shooting out those things one after another—zap, zap, zap.

      Parade Magazine 31 March 9
   U.S. English colloquial and slang
   1. dunt 1737–
      Representing a quickened, throbbing beat of the heart; (also) representing the noise made by a sudden, jolting impact, such as a heavy blow or fall…
   2. zap 1929–
      Used to represent the sound of a ray gun, laser, bullet, etc.; also figurative, expressing any sudden or dramatic event.
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. zap 1929–
      Used to represent the sound of a ray gun, laser, bullet, etc.; also figurative, expressing any sudden or dramatic event.
   View in Historical Thesaurus
2. 2.
   1969–
   zap gun noun
   A ray gun or the like.
   1. 1969

      > Billy's will was paralyzed by a zap gun aimed at him from one of the portholes.

      K. Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five iv. 65
   2. 1976

      > Plot is subordinated to character exploration, but there's more adventure in that than in many a zap-gun epic.

      Publishers Weekly 15 March 59/1
   3. 1977

      > New York police have confiscated two space-age ‘zap’ guns from blind singer Stevie Wonder... The guns look like flashlights and fire two darts attached to 20 ft. thin copper wires.

      Sunday Sun (Brisbane) 30 January 7/1
   weaponry U.S. English colloquial and slang
   1. energy gun 1917–
      A device which emits a (destructive) beam or pulse of energy or high-energy particles.
   2. ray gun 1923–
      A (typically handheld) device which emits (destructive) rays.
   3. energy weapon 1941–
      A weapon which emits a beam or pulse of destructive energy or high-energy particles.
   4. particle beam 1953–
      = beam, n.¹ III.18d; spec. such a high-energy beam used as a weapon.
   5. zap gun 1969–
      A ray gun or the like.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zap/
zap

### U.S. English

/zæp/
zap

####

##### 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

## Frequency

zap typically occurs about 0.03 times per million words in modern written English.

zap 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 zap, int., 1920–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1920 | 0.0011
1930 | 0.0022
1940 | 0.0046
1950 | 0.0077
1960 | 0.013
1970 | 0.018
1980 | 0.024
1990 | 0.027
2000 | 0.031
2010 | 0.035

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. zap, n. 1968–
   U.S. colloquial. A charge or bolt, as of…

zap, int. was first published in 1986; not fully revised.

zap, int. was last modified in July 2023.