Zipponoun1
Factsheet
What does the noun Zippo mean?
There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun Zippo. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.
How common is the noun Zippo?
| 1940 | 0.018 |
| 1950 | 0.021 |
| 1960 | 0.028 |
| 1970 | 0.048 |
| 1980 | 0.078 |
| 1990 | 0.11 |
| 2000 | 0.13 |
| 2010 | 0.15 |
How is the noun Zippo pronounced?
British English
U.S. English
Where does the noun Zippo come from?
Earliest known use
1940s
The earliest known use of the noun Zippo is in the 1940s.
OED's earliest evidence for Zippo is from 1944, in San Antonio (Texas) Sunday Light.
An arbitrary formation.
Nearby entries
- zipper, v.1927–
- zippered, adj.1926–
- zipper foot, n.1938–
- zipperhead, n.1967–
- zipper problem, n.1985–
- Zippie, n.¹1968–
- zippie, n.²1986–
- zippily, adv.1924–
- zippiness, n.1907–
- zipping, n.1868–
- Zippo, n.¹1944–
- zippo, n.²1973–
- zippy, adj.1889–
- zip tie, n.1969–
- zip-tie, v.1985–
- zip top, n.1926–
- zip-up, adj. & n.1927–
- zip wire, n.1971–
- zir, pron.1993–
- zir, adj.1993–
- ziraleet, n.1794–
Etymology
Summary
Meaning & use
- 1944–A proprietary name for: a refillable cigarette lighter, typically rectangular, with a hinged lid, and made of brass.
- 1944
Wherever there are fighting men, the demand for always reliable ZIPPOs is terrific.
San Antonio (Texas) Sunday Light 3 September (advertisement) - 1966
Luiz flicked a Zippo under my nose.
G. Lyall, Shooting Script xxii. 174 - 1993
Many shops in the US only sell petrol-filled Zippos or disposable lighters.
New Scientist 6 February 23/1 - 2013
Gimme a light, will ya? My Zippo's outta juice.
J. Ross, Outside the Wire xviii. 208
the world physical sensation use of drugs and poison tobacco smoking articles or materials used in smoking [nouns] thing which may be smoked cigarette lighter- cigar-lighter1874–
- lighter1895–A mechanical or electrical device that produces a small flame, esp. for lighting cigarettes; = cigarette lighter, n.
- cigarette lighter1915–A mechanical apparatus for lighting a cigarette.
- petrol lighter1918–a. A device for igniting petrol; b. a cigarette lighter employing petrol as fuel.
- Ronson1929–A proprietary name for: a brand of cigarette lighter.
- Zippo1944–A proprietary name for: a refillable cigarette lighter, typically rectangular, with a hinged lid, and made of brass.
- gas lighter1956–A cigarette lighter in which the combustion of gas is used to produce a flame.
Pronunciation
British English
U.S. English
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
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
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
Frequency
Zippo typically occurs about 0.1 times per million words in modern written English.
Zippo is in frequency band 4, which contains words occurring between 0.1 and 1 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands
Frequency of Zippo, n.¹, 1940–2010
* 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 |
|---|---|
| 1940 | 0.018 |
| 1950 | 0.021 |
| 1960 | 0.028 |
| 1970 | 0.048 |
| 1980 | 0.078 |
| 1990 | 0.11 |
| 2000 | 0.13 |
| 2010 | 0.15 |