What it means
زیپ (zip) is a loanword borrowed directly from English and refers to a zipper, the sliding fastener found on jackets, trousers, bags, and other items. It entered Persian in the twentieth century alongside the garments that used it. There is no widely used native Persian alternative, so زیپ is the universal term across formal and casual speech. A related verb is زیپ کشیدن (zip keshidan), meaning to zip or unzip something.
How to use it
- زیپ کتم گیر کرده. (zip-e kotam gir karde.) “The zipper on my jacket is stuck.”
- زیپ کیفتو ببند. (zip-e kifato beband.) “Close the zipper on your bag.”
- زیپ این شلوار خراب شده. (zip-e in shalvâr kharâb shode.) “The zipper on these trousers is broken.”
- میتونی زیپ پشتمو بکشی؟ (mituni zip-e poshtamo bekeshi?) “Can you zip up the back for me?”
Cultural note
Like many twentieth-century clothing terms in Persian, زیپ arrived with Western fashion and was absorbed without translation. Persian does have a tradition of coining native equivalents for foreign technical terms, but زیپ proved so simple and catchy that no substitute took hold. In informal spoken Persian, زیپ کشیدن can also be used humorously to tell someone to stop talking, similar to the English phrase “zip it.”