Zippie, n.¹

zippie
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zippie_n1%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 2021

# Zippienoun1

## Factsheet

### What does the noun Zippie mean?

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

This word is used in U.S. English.

### How common is the noun Zippie?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1960 | 0.0037
1970 | 0.0037
1980 | 0.0036
1990 | 0.0036
2000 | 0.0042
2010 | 0.003

### How is the noun Zippie pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɪpi/
ZIP-ee

#### U.S. English

/ˈzɪpi/
ZIP-ee

### Where does the noun Zippie come from?

Earliest known use

1960s

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

OED's earliest evidence for Zippie is from 1968, in Beckley (West Virginia) Post-Herald.

Zippie is a variant or alteration of another lexical item.

Etymons: Yippie n.

### Nearby entries

1. zip-lipped, adj. 1943–
2. ziplock, n. 1928–
3. zipped, adj. 1931–
4. zippeite, n. 1850–
5. zipper, n. 1923–
6. zipper, v. 1927–
7. zippered, adj. 1926–
8. zipper foot, n. 1938–
9. zipperhead, n. 1967–
10. zipper problem, n. 1985–
11. Zippie, n.¹1968–
12. zippie, n.² 1986–
13. zippily, adv. 1924–
14. zippiness, n. 1907–
15. zipping, n. 1868–
16. Zippo, n.¹ 1944–
17. zippo, n.² 1973–
18. zippy, adj. 1889–
19. zip tie, n. 1969–
20. zip-tie, v. 1985–
21. zip top, n. 1926–

## Etymology

### Summary

A variant or alteration of another lexical item.
Etymon: Yippie n.
Alteration of Yippie n., with substitution of Z n. for the initial letter (with reference to its position in the alphabet…
Alteration of Yippie n., with substitution of Z n. for the initial letter (with reference to its position in the alphabet).

### Notes

The name was subsequently interpreted as < the initial letters of Zeitgeist International Party + ‑y suffix6.

## Meaning & use

U.S. Now chiefly historical.

1. 1968–
   A member of a radical countercultural activist group; spec. a member of a short-lived breakaway group of Youth International Party members, or Yippies (see Yippie n.), which demonstrated at the Republican and Democratic conventions in Miami Beach in 1972.
   1. 1968

      > He [sc. Hubert Humphrey] was cool toward the untidy hippies and Yippies and zippies, from whom he drew some of his strength.

      Beckley (West Virginia) Post-Herald 23 September 4/7
   2. 1971

      > Zippies are ‘urging you to lend your talents to the design of a utopian cultural spasm to coincide with the conspired collapse of the Political Processing in Miami and San Diego in the summer of '72’.

      Berkeley Tribe December 15
   3. 1994

      > At Sungod kitchen I meet Shiloh, an original Zippy from the Seventies, whose nose is punched with two silver rings and whose hair is shaved along the left side of his scalp.

      Independent on Sunday 24 July (Review Supplement) 12/4
   4. 2009

      > The Zippies hated Hoffman and Jerry Rubin with a vengeance that revolutionaries reserve only for each other.

      M. Roselle & J. Mahan, Tree Spiker ii. 27
   politics U.S. English historical
   1. minuteman 1794–
      Chiefly U.S. In extended use: a member of any of various military groups or (occasionally) political organizations.
   2. activist 1920–
      A person engaged in or advocating vigorous political activity; an active campaigner.
   3. Yippie 1968–
      A member of the Youth International Party, a radical countercultural activist group formed in the United States in 1967.
   4. Zippie 1968–
      A member of a radical countercultural activist group; spec. a member of a short-lived breakaway group of Youth International Party members, or…
   5. gay liberationist 1970–
      An activist in the Gay Liberation Front; an advocate of gay liberation.
   6. struggle royalty 2003–
      Political activists who played a central role in resistance to apartheid; cf. struggle, n. additions.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɪpi/
ZIP-ee

### U.S. English

/ˈzɪpi/
ZIP-ee

####

##### 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

#### 1.

1. 1900s–
   Zippie, Zippy

#### 2. Also with lower-case initial.

## Frequency

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

Zippie 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 Zippie, n.¹, 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 | 0.0037
1970 | 0.0037
1980 | 0.0036
1990 | 0.0036
2000 | 0.0042
2010 | 0.003

Zippie, n.¹ was first published in March 2021.

Zippie, n.¹ was last modified in December 2023.