zip coden.
/ˈzɪp kəʊd/, U.S. /ˈzɪp ˌkoʊd/ 1. In the United States: a 5- or 9-digit code representing a specific geographical location which can be added to a postal address to facilitate the sorting and delivery of mail. Cf. postcode n.Five-digit zip codes were first used in 1963; in 1983 an optional four-digit extension to these, further specifying the location, was introduced.
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society > communication > correspondence > sending items > [noun] > addressing letter > address > postcode
postal code1959
zip1962
zip code1962
postcode1967
1962 Chicago Daily Defender 29 Nov. 2/4 The Zip code is tailored for use in electronic data processing equipment capable of handling mail addressing and processing at great speed.
1967 Boston Sunday Herald 26 Mar. iv. 3/8 An optical scanner..may eliminate the sorting machines by ‘reading’ the zip code on the letter and dispatching it accordingly.
1975 New Yorker 5 May 2 (advt.) In ordering a change of address, subscribers should give four weeks' notice, providing both old and new addresses, with Zip Codes.
1980 Christian Sci. Monitor 4 Dec. (Midwestern ed.) 2/2 The Postal Board of Governors..withheld final approval of a controversial plan to expand ZIP codes to nine digits.
2000 Time Digital Aug. 58/4 Punch in your zip code for local weather, or get a heads up on storms brewing elsewhere.
2. U.S. An area designated by a zip code. Frequently (and in earliest use) figurative and in extended use, indicating a large area.
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1966 News-Herald (West Lake County, Ohio) 25 Mar. 10/2 Sandy Koufax was hard put to keep a ball in the same Zip Code as the plate.
1989 Atlanta Oct. 96/2 When young influentials take over a zip code, they aren't iffy about it.
1991 D. Rieff Los Angeles ii. viii. 137 In no other major American city do residents of one neighborhood read different stories than their fellow citizens a couple of zip codes over.
2007 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 28 Jan. iii. 8/3 I like to think I'm analytical, but I'm not in the same ZIP code as Steve.
Compounds
U.S. As a modifier, designating something influenced or determined by a person's locality or postal address, chiefly with reference to the unequal provision of health care, education, etc.; esp. in figurative phrase zip code lottery; cf. postcode n. Compounds.
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1979 Credit Card Redlining: Hearings before Subcomm. on Consumer Affairs (U.S. Senate, 96th Congr., 1st Sess.) 21 It is our contention that ZIP code discrimination..has the practical effect of discriminating on the basis of race, given the essentially segregated nature of housing in Atlanta.
2000 N.Y. Times 17 July b5/4 You lost the ZIP code lottery and now your chances of dying are three times higher because you were born here.
2017 Chicago Daily Herald (Nexis) 13 May Students are essentially forced to play a zip code lottery that determines whether they learn in a classroom equipped with an iPad for every student or one where students share decades-old textbooks.
Derivatives
ˈzip-coded adj. U.S. having or provided with a zip code; designated or distinguished by a zip code.
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1963 Ironwood (Mich.) Daily Globe 1 May ii. 11/3 The plan is principally aimed at encouraging big business firms to use the five-digit ZIP-coded addresses on the billions of pieces of mail they send out annually.
2018 Jrnl. Real Estate Lit. 26 200 Some of the explanatory variables in the auxiliary regression include..median house value, average age of the population for each ZIP-Coded area.
ˈzip-coding n. U.S. the process of organizing something by, or providing something with, a zip code.
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1964 Washington Post 23 Mar. a7/5 This [sc. the inclusion of ZIP Code numbers when filling out addresses on income tax returns]..will help the tax collection agencies to complete the ZIP Coding of their files.
2000 F. Newell loyalty.com ix. 81 Related applications can now be performed on a laptop such as address standardization and zip-coding.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2021; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1962