zip, n.⁴

zip
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zip_n4%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 2007

# zipnoun4

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zip mean?

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

zip is considered offensive.

### How common is the noun zip?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1960 | 0.0052
1970 | 0.0062
1980 | 0.0068
1990 | 0.0068
2000 | 0.0078
2010 | 0.0089

### How is the noun zip pronounced?

#### British English

/zɪp/
zip

#### U.S. English

/zɪp/
zip

### Where does the noun zip come from?

Earliest known use

1960s

The earliest known use of the noun zip is in the 1960s.

OED's earliest evidence for zip is from 1968, in Esquire Magazine.

zip is perhaps formed within English, by clipping or shortening.

Etymons: zipperhead n.

### Nearby entries

1. Zioner, n. 1681–1760
2. Zionism, n. 1896–
3. Zionist, n. & adj. a1649–
4. Zionistic, adj. 1887–
5. Zionite, n. 1596–
6. Zionless, adj. 1908
7. Zionward, adv. 1647–
8. Zionwards, adv. 1674–
9. zip, n.² & adj. 1900–
10. zip, n.³ 1962–
11. zip, n.⁴1968–
12. zip, v.¹ 1852–
13. zip, v.² 1964–
14. zip, int. & n.¹ 1678–
15. zip-a-dee-doo-dah, int. & adj. 1945–
16. zip code, n. 1962–
17. zip-code, v. 1962–
18. zip-coded, adj. 1963–
19. zip-coding, n. 1964–
20. zip coon, n. 1833–
21. zip cuff, n. 1995–

## Etymology

### Summary

Of uncertain origin. Perhaps formed within English, by clipping or shortening.
Etymon: zipperhead n.
Origin uncertain. Perhaps shortened < zipperhead n. (compare discussion at that entry).

## Meaning & use

slang (originally U.S. Military). derogatory and offensive.

1. 1968–
   A person of East or Southeast Asian birth or descent; spec. a Vietnamese person, esp. a member of the North Vietnamese armed forces during the Vietnam War (1955–75).
   1. 1968

      > I'm up there walkin' the ridgeline an' this Zip jumps up smack into me, lays this AK-47 fucking right into me.

      Esquire August 67/2
   2. 1986

      > Be advised I've got zips inside the wire.

      D. A. Dye, Platoon (1987) ix. 232
   3. 1992

      > They respected their enemy. They never used the derogatory terms I would hear elsewhere: gomers, slopes, dinks, gooks, zips, slopeheads.

      J. F. Flanagan, Vietnam above Treetops ix. 185
   4. 2003

      > ‘Zips are crazier than hell.’ ‘Zips?’ ‘Yeah, you know. Dinks. Koreans.’

      J. W. Sammon, Freedom Pagoda ix. 76
   military U.S. English colloquial and slang derogatory offensive

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zɪp/
zip

### U.S. English

/zɪp/
zip

####

##### 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

Also with capital initial.

## Frequency

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

zip 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 zip, n.⁴, 1960–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1960 | 0.0052
1970 | 0.0062
1980 | 0.0068
1990 | 0.0068
2000 | 0.0078
2010 | 0.0089

zip, n.⁴ was first published in March 2007.

zip, n.⁴ was last modified in December 2023.