the.com/zipper
the unsung hero clenching your dignity shut a thousand teeth at a time
means a fastening device with two rows of interlocking metal or plastic teeth joined or parted by a sliding tab, used on clothing, bags, and more
from A trademark coined in 1923 by the B.F. Goodrich company for their rubber galoshes, which closed with the new sliding fastener — the name was meant to echo the quick "zip" sound it made (an imitative word for a brisk, speedy movement). The fastener itself was older, refined over decades by inventors like Whitcomb Judson and Gideon Sundback, but it was the snappy "zipper" name that stuck and slid into everyday speech.
- original name
- called the clasp locker before zipper stuck
- named for sound
- the word zipper mimics its noisy zip
- slow debut
- took twenty years to catch on commercially
- tooth count
- a jacket zipper has roughly fifty interlocking teeth
- YKK empire
- one company makes half the world's zippers