רִיצְ'רָץ' (ritz'rats') — zipper (colloquial)
Etymology
The word רִיצְ'רָץ' is a folk distortion of the German word Reißverschluss (zipper), formed by customers of Israel's first zipper factory who could not manage the German term. The name emerged from a confluence of onomatopoeia — the zipping sound suggesting a rapid back-and-forth motion — and the Hebrew word רץ (runner, from root ר-ץ). It stands alongside the formally sanctioned term רוֹכְסָן (rokhsan), coined by the poet Avraham Shlonsky in 1933, as the two competing names for the same fastener.
The trouser fly (מִפְתָּח מִכְנָסַיִם) had existed for centuries, with buttons (כַּפְתּוֹרִים) being the original fastening mechanism. The word כַּפְתּוֹר itself is biblical, appearing in descriptions of the Tabernacle menorah (Exodus 25:31) and interpreted as a knob or rounded protrusion; it entered modern Hebrew with the meaning "button" through a chain of translations — Luther rendered it as Knauf (knob) in his 1534 German Bible, later editions substituted Knopf (the button word), Moses Mendelssohn used Knopf in his Jewish German translation (1783), Judah ben Ze'ev equated כַּפְתּוֹר with Knopf in his 1808 Hebrew-German dictionary, and Haskalah writers thus adopted כַּפְתּוֹר for clothing buttons.
The modern zipper was developed in stages. Gideon Sundback, a Swedish-American engineer, patented the modern zipper in 1912 after perfecting earlier designs; Swiss industrialist Dr. Martin Winterhalter acquired the patent in 1924 and mass-produced it. By the 1930s zippers were globally popular. In 1933, immigrants Yehezkel Kreistman and David Shochat arrived from Germany and set up a Tel Aviv factory called "Raz" manufacturing zippers. Their customers struggled with the German name Reißverschluss (from reißen, "to tear/move fast" + Verschluss, "closure"), and the word was distorted into רִיצְ'רָץ' through onomatopoeia and folk-etymology. Kreistman and Shochat then commissioned poet Avraham Shlonsky to create a proper Hebrew name; he coined רוֹכְסָן.
When the Va'ad HaLashon (predecessor of the Academy of the Hebrew Language) convened its clothing terminology committee in 1936, its members — who included S.Y. Agnon and historian Joseph Klausner — were apparently unaware of Shlonsky's term and proposed סִגְרוּר or סְגוֹרָץ instead. Neither caught on. The Academy formally standardized רוֹכְסָן in 1984. Both רוֹכְסָן and רִיצְ'רָץ' remain in active use today. A separate question before the Academy's fashion terminology committee (which the column's author chairs) is what to call the trouser fly opening (מִפְתָּח מִכְנָסַיִם) — colloquially called חֲנוּת (store) from the Yiddish idiom "farmakh di krom" (close the store), but without an official term.
Key Quotes
"המילה סורסה רִיצְ'רָץ', בהשפעת הדמיון לצליל של השימוש ברוכסן (אונומטופיה) ובהשפעת המילה 'רץ'" — Elon Gilad, Miha'Safa Pnima column
Timeline
- Biblical era: כַּפְתּוֹר appears in descriptions of the Tabernacle
- 1534: Luther translates כַּפְתּוֹר as Knauf in his German Bible
- 1783: Mendelssohn uses Knopf in his "Bi'ur" Torah translation
- 1808: Judah ben Ze'ev equates כַּפְתּוֹר = Knopf in his Hebrew-German dictionary
- 1897: Universal Fastener Company begins producing an early zipper in Chicago
- 1912: Sundback patents the modern zipper
- 1924: Winterhalter acquires patent and begins mass production
- 1933: Kreistman and Shochat establish "Raz" zipper factory in Tel Aviv; customers coin רִיצְ'רָץ'; Shlonsky coins רוֹכְסָן
- 1936: Va'ad HaLashon clothing committee proposes סִגְרוּר and סְגוֹרָץ (not adopted)
- 1984: Academy of the Hebrew Language formally standardizes רוֹכְסָן
Related Words
- רוֹכְסָן — zipper (the formally approved Hebrew term, coined by Shlonsky 1933, standardized 1984)
- כַּפְתּוֹר — button (biblical word reapplied to clothing buttons through the Mendelssohn/Ben Ze'ev tradition)
- סְגִירָה — closure, fastening (general term from root ס-ג-ר)
- חֲנוּת — store; also colloquial for trouser fly opening (from Yiddish "krom")