zipped, adj.

zipped
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zipped_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# zippedadjective

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zipped mean?

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

zipped has developed meanings and uses in subjects including

building (1930s) computing (1980s)

### How common is the adjective zipped?

About 0.07occurrences per million words in modern written English

1930 | 0.011
1940 | 0.014
1950 | 0.021
1960 | 0.029
1970 | 0.046
1980 | 0.061
1990 | 0.069
2000 | 0.08
2010 | 0.093

### How is the adjective zipped pronounced?

#### British English

/zɪpt/
zipt

#### U.S. English

/zɪpt/
zipt

### Where does the adjective zipped come from?

Earliest known use

1930s

The earliest known use of the adjective zipped is in the 1930s.

OED's earliest evidence for zipped is from 1931, in the Daily Mail (London).

zipped is formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: zip n.1, ‑ed suffix2; zip v.1, ‑ed suffix1.

### Nearby entries

1. ziphian, n. & adj. 1896
2. ziphiiform, adj. 1891
3. ziphioid, adj. & n. 1861–
4. zipless, adj. 1922–
5. zip line, n. 1970–
6. zip line, v. 1998–
7. zipliner, n. 1993–
8. zip lining, n.?1983–
9. zip-lipped, adj. 1943–
10. ziplock, n. 1928–
11. zipped, adj.1931–
12. zippeite, n. 1850–
13. zipper, n. 1923–
14. zipper, v. 1927–
15. zippered, adj. 1926–
16. zipper foot, n. 1938–
17. zipperhead, n. 1967–
18. zipper problem, n. 1985–
19. Zippie, n.¹ 1968–
20. zippie, n.² 1986–
21. zippily, adv. 1924–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by derivation.
Etymons: zip n.1, ‑ed suffix2; zip v.1, ‑ed suffix1.
Partly < zip n.1 + ‑ed suffix2,

and partly zip v.1 + ‑ed suffix1.

Compare earlier zippered adj.

## Meaning & use

1. 1.
   1931–
   Of a garment, bag, or other item: fastened by means of a zip; having a zip.
   1. 1931

      > Both leather and tweed jackets are now being made with an inverted zipped pleat between the shoulder blades.

      Daily Mail 2 September 15/3
   2. 1946

      > She picked up her mother's zipped travelling bag.

      ‘S. Russell’, To Bed with Grand Music i. 13
   3. 1972

      > Down suit and fully zipped windproofs.

      D. Haston, In High Places xi. 117
   4. 2006

      > There's also a zipped pocket that's perfect for essentials such as scissors, stitch markers and cable needles.

      Simply Knitting June 11/1
   building
   1. zippered 1926–
      Esp. of an item of clothing: fastened by means of a zipper, having a zipper.
   2. zipped 1931–
      Of a garment, bag, or other item: fastened by means of a zip; having a zip.
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. zippered 1926–
      Esp. of an item of clothing: fastened by means of a zipper, having a zipper.
   2. ziplock 1928–
      As a modifier. Designating something which closes or fastens by means of a zip. Also: designating a bag, etc., with a lockable zip.
   3. zipped 1931–
      Of a garment, bag, or other item: fastened by means of a zip; having a zip.
   View in Historical Thesaurus
2. 2.
   1942–
   figurative. Of a person's mouth or lips: tightly closed (indicating unwillingness to talk or divulge information, or suppressed emotion or determined reticence). Chiefly in zipped lip.
   Recorded earliest in the compound best-zipped.
   1. 1942

      > If Uncle Sam really values the silence of people who know things, then he ought to give some sort of decoration to Lee Roy Phillips for one of the best-zipped lips in the service.

      Ada (Oklahoma) Evening News 8 February 7/1
   2. 1943

      > Apparently Canadians were wiser in the matter of keeping a ‘zipped lip’.

      J. Goodell, They sent me to Iceland i. 17
   3. 1966

      > Blobb inquired around about the Trystero organization, running into zipped mouths nearly every way he turned.

      T. Pynchon, Crying of Lot 49 vi. 158
   4. 2012

      > He ruthlessly destroyed countless lives. And got away with it because of a culture of zipped lips and fear.

      Belfast Telegraph (Nexis) 19 October
3. 3.
   1989–
   Computing. Also ZIPped. Of a file: compressed through having been added to a zip archive file (see zip n.1 B.3).
   1. 1989

      > I will send a uuencoded [sic]/zipped file to anyone who wants it until April 24.

      comp.sys.ibm.pc 17 April (Usenet newsgroup, accessed 10 Oct. 2011)
   2. 1994

      > A ZIPped version of the three-part file series on traveling to Europe, covering planning, packing, etiquette, food, payments and more.

      CompuServe Magazine March 57/2
   3. 2001

      > Zipped files can be decompressed on just about any system as long as the reader has an unzip utility.

      W. R. Stanek et al., Microsoft Frontpage 2002 Unleashed xii. 279
   4. 2011

      > Zipped files are quicker to download and occupy less hard disk space.

      Computeractive (Nexis) 1 September
   computing

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zɪpt/
zipt

### U.S. English

/zɪpt/
zipt

####

##### 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

zipped typically occurs about 0.07 times per million words in modern written English.

zipped 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 zipped, adj., 1930–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1930 | 0.011
1940 | 0.014
1950 | 0.021
1960 | 0.029
1970 | 0.046
1980 | 0.061
1990 | 0.069
2000 | 0.08
2010 | 0.093

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. unzipped, adj. 1940–
   Of an item of clothing, bag, or other item: not…

1. 1934–
   With adverbs, forming adjectives corresponding to uses of zip v.1 with adverbs, as in zipped-in, zipped-up, etc. Cf. zip v.1 Phrasal verbs.
   1. 1934

      > Shetland tweed swagger coat with detachable zipped-in fur lining.

      New York Times 5 August (Late City edition) i. 14/3 (advertisement)
   2. 1936

      > A fall costume of grey suede which..has padded shoulders, a zipped-up bodice and a becoming hat to match.

      Concord (Massachusetts) Enterprise 30 September 3/4
   3. 1984

      > Only the moon lit the faces of the lovers, snuggled together under a zipped-open sleeping bag.

      A. Maupin, Babycakes (1989) vii. 51
   4. 2004

      > One of them had a plazzy bag with £30,000 in it stashed inside his zipped-up tracky top.

      G. Johnson, Powder Wars (2005) xi. 128
   5. 2013

      > The bag sports a zipped-down organization section that grants access to a bevy of internal storage units.

      PC Today January 63

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

zipped, adj. was revised in March 2021.

zipped, adj. was last modified in December 2024.