Zip/Zippo

Origin of: Zip/Zippo

Zip/Zippo

Zip as in to move quickly or zip by is purely echoic and dates from the mid-19th century and is American in origin. Zip has also come to mean nil or zero, as in ‘my team lost last night, five zip (or zippo)’, which means they lost 5-0. This usage is thought to have originated in the US in the late 19th/ early 20th century from student slang and its origin is unknown. Zip as in the lightning fast clothes fastener or zipper, originates from around 1925. The first patent that was taken out for it as for a boot-fastener rather than for clothing. The name is derived from the onomatopoeic or echoic sound that such a fastener makes. A zip gun describes a very basic, homemade handgun that fires one bullet and costs zip or zero to make, dates from the 1950s. Zippo is also the proprietary trademark of a range of famous American cigarette lighters, registered in 1932. See also Zip it and ZIP code