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 namecalled the clasp locker before zipper stuck
named for soundthe word zipper mimics its noisy zip
slow debuttook twenty years to catch on commercially
tooth counta jacket zipper has roughly fifty interlocking teeth
YKK empireone company makes half the world's zippers