Zippo, n.¹

zippo
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zippo_n1%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# Zipponoun1

## Earlier version

- Zippo in OED Second Edition (1989)

## 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?

About 0.1occurrences per million words in modern written English

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

/ˈzɪpəʊ/
ZIP-oh

#### U.S. English

/ˈzɪpoʊ/
ZIP-oh

### 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

1. zipper, v. 1927–
2. zippered, adj. 1926–
3. zipper foot, n. 1938–
4. zipperhead, n. 1967–
5. zipper problem, n. 1985–
6. Zippie, n.¹ 1968–
7. zippie, n.² 1986–
8. zippily, adv. 1924–
9. zippiness, n. 1907–
10. zipping, n. 1868–
11. Zippo, n.¹1944–
12. zippo, n.² 1973–
13. zippy, adj. 1889–
14. zip tie, n. 1969–
15. zip-tie, v. 1985–
16. zip top, n. 1926–
17. zip-up, adj. & n. 1927–
18. zip wire, n. 1971–
19. zir, pron. 1993–
20. zir, adj. 1993–
21. ziraleet, n. 1794–

## Etymology

### Summary

An arbitrary formation.
An arbitrary formation. Compare zipper n., zippy adj. 1, and ‑o suffix.

## Meaning & use

1. 1944–
   A proprietary name for: a refillable cigarette lighter, typically rectangular, with a hinged lid, and made of brass.
   1. 1944

      > Wherever there are fighting men, the demand for always reliable ZIPPOs is terrific.

      San Antonio (Texas) Sunday Light 3 September (advertisement)
   2. 1966

      > Luiz flicked a Zippo under my nose.

      G. Lyall, Shooting Script xxii. 174
   3. 1993

      > Many shops in the US only sell petrol-filled Zippos or disposable lighters.

      New Scientist 6 February 23/1
   4. 2013

      > Gimme a light, will ya? My Zippo's outta juice.

      J. Ross, Outside the Wire xviii. 208
   tobacco
   1. cigar-lighter 1874–
   2. lighter 1895–
      A mechanical or electrical device that produces a small flame, esp. for lighting cigarettes; = cigarette lighter, n.
   3. cigarette lighter 1915–
      A mechanical apparatus for lighting a cigarette.
   4. petrol lighter 1918–
      a. A device for igniting petrol; b. a cigarette lighter employing petrol as fuel.
   5. Ronson 1929–
      A proprietary name for: a brand of cigarette lighter.
   6. Zippo 1944–
      A proprietary name for: a refillable cigarette lighter, typically rectangular, with a hinged lid, and made of brass.
   7. gas lighter 1956–
      A cigarette lighter in which the combustion of gas is used to produce a flame.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɪpəʊ/
ZIP-oh

### U.S. English

/ˈzɪpoʊ/
ZIP-oh

####

##### 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 lower-case initial.

## 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 data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.

### 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

Zippo, n.¹ was revised in March 2021.

Zippo, n.¹ was last modified in July 2023.