zip [M19th] As a name for a fastener, zip dates from the 1920s. The idea of speed was already present in a 19th-century use representing the sound of something moving through the air rapidly. Zoom appears at the same time with the same sense. To zoom, communicate using the Zoom application, first appeared in 2014 but gained a wide currency during the 2020 coronavirus lockdown. In the USA zip also means ‘nothing, nil, zero’. This appeared in print in 1900, much earlier than the similar zilch, the first clear example of which dates from the mid 1960s, though Mr Zilch had been used as an indefinite name 30 or more years before. The US zip code, a postal code consisting of five or nine digits, is unrelated, being short for Zone Improvement Plan.