11

Is it correct English to use the term zipped instead of compressed when dealing with computer files?

Is it a neologism that is widely accepted as part of modern English?

tchrist
  • 134,759
Stephane Rolland
  • 671

9 Answers9

40

I would say no, they are not the same. As Ian says, there are many ways to compress a file or set of files; Zip is only one of them. It would be like using "banana" to mean any kind of fruit, or "Ford" to mean any kind of car.

I just had a frustrating conversation with my daughter the other day where she asked if I had any software to unzip a file. I told her that her computer has Windows 7, unzip software is built in, just open it. She said it didn't work. It eventually turned out that what she had was an RAR file, not a Zip. We had one of those totally unproductive conversations where she apparently couldn't comprehend what I meant when I said this was not a Zip file and unzip software would be of no value.

So maybe to many people "zip file" is becoming a generic term for any sort of compression or any file that contains multiple files embedded within it. Personally I rebel at such imprecise language.

Jay
  • 36,223
  • 2
    You can rebel if you like, but this particular train is pulling out of the station. Not only is it becoming common for lay people and "partly computer-savvy" people to use zip generically, but programs that handle multiple formats are also becoming more widespread. If you had simply given your daughter 7-Zip (for example), she could have opened a huge plethora of file types, including ZIP and RAR. Even the dominant "brand-name" software, WinZIP, opens RAR these days (and is available as a free trial). – John Y Aug 31 '12 at 16:16
  • 7
    @JohnY Nevertheless, compressing a file with the RAR file format does not make it a "zipped" file just because you used "7-Zip". – lily Aug 31 '12 at 16:31
  • 2
    @Arafinwe: That's not my point. It's not like you can create a RAR file with 7-Zip anyway, as RAR is proprietary. My point is that the actual file format is becoming less and less important these days. If someone asks you to xerox something for them, but all you have are Canon copiers, are you going to leave the building in search of a Xerox machine so that you can fulfill the request? – John Y Aug 31 '12 at 16:51
  • 7
    @JohnY I have never heard any tech-savvy people refer to anything besides .zip files as "zip files". It's always, always, a "rar file/archive" for .rars, a "tarball" for .tar.gz (and less commonly, .tar, .tar.<other compression>, etc), or, much more rarely, "archive file" if you want a generic term for all of them. – Izkata Aug 31 '12 at 17:49
  • 3
    @Izkata: Still missing the point. The question wasn't "do tech-savvy people make a distinction between zipped and compressed?". It was "has zipped become a neologism for compressed?". The answer is clearly yes. My message to tech-savvy people: If you're so tech-savvy, why does it matter what a layperson calls it? Are you somehow unable to open a tarball if a layperson says it's a zip file? – John Y Aug 31 '12 at 17:58
  • 1
    @Arafinwe and the copy I made on my Ricoh copier isn't a Xeroxed copy. I didn't drink champagne at my daughters graduation, I had sparkling white wine from California. I wiped my nose with tissue paper, not a Kleenex. Etc, etc. Zip has become a generonym for file compression – Kevin Aug 31 '12 at 18:25
  • 4
    @JohnY Just because this particular train is leaving the station doesn't mean that I have to buy a ticket for it. I intend to stand on the platform and make rude remarks to everyone who boards. Or at least, give them nasty looks. :-) – Jay Aug 31 '12 at 19:27
  • 1
    +1. I would add that when one unzips a zipped file, you get back the original contents at full fidelity. That's not necessarily so with compression. I can compress a RAW image file into a jpeg or a lossless WAV into an MP3, but I can't "uncompress" those back into their exact, original forms. – David Kolar Aug 31 '12 at 19:32
  • 4
    @JohnY Yes, yes, once I saw the issue, we quickly found some software that would extract the contents of the file. But the problem with such careless language is that it leads to exactly this sort of confusion: Any given decompression program will have some specific set of file types that it can handle. If people don't understand that there ARE different compression methods, a simple question like, "What formats does this program decompress?" can sound incomprehensible. – Jay Aug 31 '12 at 19:34
  • 2
    The Xerox analogy is flawed: If I can photocopy a piece of paper on a Xerox machine, I can almost certainly copy it on a Canon also. But if my WinZip program can decompress a particular file, that's no guarantee that tar can also decompress the same file. I don't expect non-geeks to know everything about computers that I do -- if they did, I wouldn't get paid so much -- but there are things they need to know and be able to state correctly to get a given job done. – Jay Aug 31 '12 at 19:36
  • @Jay: I have no issue with you continuing to use zip in a more specific way than "normal" people. I actively avoid genericized terms myself. But you have to ask yourself: Does a layperson really need to know the different formats? Should they need to know? Should the patient need to know the right terminology to get help from a doctor? I would argue that sure, it's helpful, both for the patient and the doctor. But the doctor shouldn't be frustrated if the patient can't talk to the doctor the same way that a doctor talks to another doctor. – John Y Aug 31 '12 at 19:53
  • @Jay: Regarding the Xerox analogy, why do you even bother to bring up tar? Your comparison of a multiformat decompressor like WinZip (which does handle TAR) to a single-format decompressor like tar is like saying "just because my printer/scanner/fax machine can make photocopies doesn't mean my scanner can make photocopies". Um, OK? The point of the Xerox analogy was to highlight the neologism which is happening. See Kevin's comment. – John Y Aug 31 '12 at 20:06
  • 2
    @JohnY I agree with Jay that your analogies are very flawed. What you're effectively saying is that because both a rotary phone and an Android phone are both called "phones", we should have absolutely no trouble playing Angry Birds on the rotary phone. – Izkata Aug 31 '12 at 20:13
  • 1
    @JohnY People who use "zip" to refer to .rar, .tar.*, and anything else should be actively discouraged, because those formats do different things. Zip, for example, does not support splitting across files as part of the spec the same way as rar files. – Izkata Aug 31 '12 at 20:13
  • @Izkata: I'm saying (1) using zipped to mean compressed is like using xeroxed to mean photocopied; and (2) a tech-knowledgeable person should have no trouble diagnosing a tech-ignorant person's problem of "help, I can't open this file!" and, in most cases, should be able to fix it rather easily as well. – John Y Aug 31 '12 at 20:20
  • 1
    @JohnY: That's like saying that a doctor should have no trouble diagnosing a patient's problem of "I'm sick" without describing any symptoms. – Dan Sep 01 '12 at 19:18
  • @Dan: But the doctor can ask what the symptoms are and figure it out. Jay doesn't have to get frustrated because his daughter doesn't know his preferred terminology. He can calmly ask her to describe her symptoms in a way that she* can answer usefully*. Like: OK, so it doesn't open normally in Windows. So therefore Jay already knows it's not a ZIP. He can then say something like "let's download this freely available tool that handles all kinds of stuff and see if it opens with that". Really, that's how many steps it could have taken him. No need for frustration. – John Y Sep 02 '12 at 13:57
  • I don't mean to dump on Jay too much. I actually liked most of his answer. And like I said, he's is absolutely free to resist genericization of terms. As I also said, I do that too. Just as he (and many others) would like to encourage people to use more specific terms where available and appropriate, I would like to encourage people to have a more helpful attitude. These are not incompatible goals, either. Actually, they tend to facilitate each other. For my part, I apologize for and regret any confrontational tone in my comments. – John Y Sep 02 '12 at 14:06
  • @JohnY No problem, I'm used to being abused. I was married for 17 years. :-) – Jay Sep 04 '12 at 15:22
  • @JohnY Later thought: Maybe we're not disagreeing that much. I certainly didn't mean to say that if someone who is not knowledgeable describes a problem imprecisely or inaccurately, that the more knowledgeable person should ridicule him. I was thinking more along the lines of, "Oh, wait, no that's not really a Zip file. You see, there's a difference between a Zip and a Tar ..." Depending on the person and the situation, maybe you leave it at that or maybe you explain further. If the person is really confused maybe you don't explain at all, you just grunt and fix the problem. – Jay Sep 17 '12 at 14:02
  • @Jay: When you express it like that, I don't think we're disagreeing much at all. It seemed to me as though you were just venting in the middle paragraph of your answer, and that's what put me off a bit. (Maybe if instead of your daughter it had been your pointy-haired boss, I wouldn't have noticed. ;) – John Y Sep 17 '12 at 15:53
20

Yes, people say zipped to mean compressed the same way they say googled to mean searched or hoovered to mean vacuumed.

The ZIP file format dates back to 1989.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者
  • 18,150
  • 2
  • 58
  • 74
  • It's uncommon to use Hoovered. Even in British English (or perhaps especially in BrE, as it's just plain uncommon in AmE), it has been genericized to hoovered. See this earlier EL&U question. – John Y Aug 31 '12 at 15:56
  • Aside from the capitalization issue, this is increasingly becoming my favorite answer of the bunch (despite one of my comments on @5arx's answer). I'm getting very tired of all the "well technically..." pedantry (which I'm guilty of contributing to). You gave a link to Wikipedia. That's sufficient. Let's just accept that zipped is being used this way and move on. – John Y Aug 31 '12 at 16:37
  • @JohnY I hemmed and hawed as I wrote it. I have dipped into the lower case and re-set this answer. – cornbread ninja 麵包忍者 Aug 31 '12 at 16:44
  • 2
    This is one of the better answers, so I hope you will update your answer with my suggestion. It's actually preferable to use "zipped" instead of "compressed". The level of computer illiteracy is such that people may actually get confused if you say "compressed". – Chan-Ho Suh Aug 31 '12 at 17:45
  • 2
    The trouble is, of course, that it doesn't really matter which search engine or vacuum cleaner you used -- the end result is the same, so it's generally unimportant whether you hoovered or vacuumed, googled or searched, xeroxed or photocopied. However, the effect of using zip, tar or rar to compress a file is quite different, as are the tools required to reverse the operation. – calum_b Sep 01 '12 at 16:04
  • @scottishwildcat: In today's world, if you are keeping up with the times, the tools are increasingly able to figure out the format themselves and do the right thing. WinZip and 7-Zip, just to name two popular alternatives out of a growing number, handle all the formats your mention. – John Y Sep 02 '12 at 14:08
10

In most cases, a zipped file is compressed; However, a compressed file is not necessarily zipped.

So, no, you can not just use zipped instead of compressed, although the contrary is possible.

seriousdev
  • 1,614
5

Yes, they are generally interchangeable. However, the definitions are different. A compressed file can be compressed in any number of ways, for example, a .jpg image is more compressed than a .png image. A zipped file is a folder that has basically been turned into a file for sharing and sending. A zipped folder does not have to be compressed.

Ian
  • 394
  • 9
    A zipped file is not a directory; it is still a file. – tchrist Aug 31 '12 at 12:57
  • That's what I said. A zipped file is a directory that has been turned into a file using a program like 7-Zip or WinZip – Ian Aug 31 '12 at 12:59
  • 2
    Well, since Windows XP zipped files are treated much like directories by Windows. The distinction is blurring. – Jay Aug 31 '12 at 13:44
  • 1
    @Ian, it sounds like you're mixing referents. A zipped file is a regular file which has been placed into a ZIP file, usually going through a compression stage in the process. A ZIP file is essentially a directory containing 0 or more zipped files; but instead of being treated only as a directory, it can also be dealt with as a file. – Hellion Aug 31 '12 at 13:45
  • That's pretty much what I am trying to say, @Hellion – Ian Aug 31 '12 at 14:40
  • 10
    It's notable that zip is not the only general-purpose compression format too, and telling someone that a .tar.gz or .7z file is "zipped" is incorrect and confusing (especially since Windows by default only handles actual zip files). – Brendan Long Aug 31 '12 at 14:47
  • @Brendan, that's true, also because they each need a special program to 'unzip'(for lack of a better term). – Ian Aug 31 '12 at 14:49
  • @Ian: the better term you are looking for is 'uncompress', 'decompress', or 'expand' – Sam Axe Aug 31 '12 at 16:37
  • 2
    Saying that a .jpg image is more compressed than a .png is not really valid. Computer generated images for instance usually compress a lot better with PNG than with JPG (and without losses too). – Leo Aug 31 '12 at 16:41
  • 8
    ... Except that the "z" in .gz and .7z stands for "Zip"; the files are "GZip" and "7-Zip" files. However, Ian is correct; ZIP is an "archival" storage format which allows various compression algorithms (the most popular being LZ77-based DEFLATE) to be applied to the archived data. – KeithS Aug 31 '12 at 16:43
  • 3
    @ObsessiveFOSS: A *.tar is neither "compressed" nor "zipped". That's why *.tar.gz is so common. – ruakh Aug 31 '12 at 17:37
  • @ObsessiveFOSS - Your point? I was merely commenting on Brendan Long's comment that it was wrong to call .gz and .7z files "zipped" because they weren't "zip files". While technically true the term "zipped" meaning "placed in a compressable archive" has become extremely common both among users and among software writers who have borrowed the term for their own formats. – KeithS Aug 31 '12 at 17:39
  • 2
    A zip file is an entire filesystem nested inside a single file. It has a directory listing (of file names and nested directory structure). And it also has attributes (such as file creation time) for each entry. – Ben Voigt Aug 31 '12 at 17:43
  • I take back my point. I was in error. – nanofarad Aug 31 '12 at 17:43
  • I wouldn't say they are interchangeable. "Compressed" would confuse people a lot more than "zipped". This is, of course, assuming you are talking to an average computer user. – Chan-Ho Suh Aug 31 '12 at 17:46
3

As per the definition of zip on Wiktionary.org (a site that may have unsubstantiated definitions and usage notes):

v. (transitive, computing) To compress (one or more computer files) into a single and often smaller file, especially one in the ZIP format.

I would say the answer is that it is "accepted" though your mileage may vary if you're talking to someone computer illiterate.

Zairja
  • 6,901
  • 2
    You might should mention that your source is only Wiktionary, which is not much of an authority. – tchrist Aug 31 '12 at 12:56
  • 1
    @tchrist Are you trying to say that there might be things on the Internet that aren't true? That's just crazy talk. – Jay Aug 31 '12 at 13:54
  • 2
    I think the logic of your last paragraph should be reversed... "your mileage may vary if you're talking to someone computer literate". In my (techy) opinion it is more likely to be accepted by the computer illiterate. But the 100% computer illiteate will struggle with the term compressed. – MrWhite Aug 31 '12 at 14:56
  • 1
    @w3d Interesting point, though in that case I'd prefer to communicate to them the basic process with a word like shrink or make smaller rather than a bit of jargon that would go over their heads. – Zairja Aug 31 '12 at 15:03
2

There are many compression algorithms, Zip is just a very well-known one in Windows and OSX contexts. Older IT people may think immediately of tar (tape archives), older Mac-heads might think of Stuffit archives, youngsters may prefer the 7Zip format for compressed files.

So if you want to be strictly correct (for example if you are an IT type) you would use compressed to refer to the general case and zipped for archives that have specifically been compressed with the Zip algorithm. For muggles the terms are mostly synonymous because they rarely bother with anything other than classic Zip which most modern OSes support out-of-the-box. However, as other responders have noted, it is not uncommon to find archives created by using other technologies. The RAR or ARJ formats spring to mind here.

immutabl
  • 3,119
  • 1
    Zip isn't an algorithm but an archive format. It can contain files compressed with a number of algorithms. Deflate being the most common. – Alex Jasmin Aug 31 '12 at 16:08
  • @AlexandreJasmin: That's extremely pedantic, especially for EL&U. You could apply your comment to almost all the answers here. If you really want to be technical, you also have to mention that a ZIP archive can contain files that are not compressed at all. That's actually much more common than using a compression other than Deflate. – John Y Aug 31 '12 at 16:21
  • @JohnY - it is pedantic, but we're all in the business of truth and accuracy on SE so its a fair comment imho. – immutabl Aug 31 '12 at 16:23
  • 1
    EVERY answer here has inaccuracies of some sort or another, but to me, this is the one (thus far) that best captures the state of zipped and compressed in the English language today. – John Y Aug 31 '12 at 16:25
  • 1
    @5arx: I would say we're in the business of helping people with English here on EL&U, not in the business of providing every possible technical detail, especially when it comes to computer details that most people (including most computer professionals!) don't really need to care about. – John Y Aug 31 '12 at 16:27
  • @JohnY I don't disagree but I think some background was needed to justify my answer on this occasion. – immutabl Sep 03 '12 at 08:14
0

Actually it is not 100% equal. Compression is the term of 'compressing' a (set of) files/folders.

Zipping is the noun for performing this task using the so called zip file format. This file format is generated using a zip-application (e.g. winzip) which implement this task.

However, next to the zip file format there are many others, like tar, arj etc. Each have their own application or support multiple file formats (and thus algorithms).

Your question can also be compared to 'googling' a term in a browser; Google is not the only application but since it is so widely used it is accepted by some as 'searching a term in a browser'.

Michel Keijzers
  • 193
-1

They are interchangeable depending on the context. If we are talking about computer thing, then it's ok to use them as synonyms.

Olga S.
  • 438
  • People are of course free to vote as they wish, but I just wanted to express that I personally feel this is not worth multiple downvotes (it's at minus two as I write this). It seems to me this answer is pointing out that zipped and compressed might not be at all interchangeable in noncomputer contexts. For example, we could be talking about a fluffy jacket. – John Y Aug 31 '12 at 20:39
  • @JohnY It's being downvoted because of the blatantly wrong second line: They are not synonyms, as pointed out by just about all the other answers. – Izkata Sep 01 '12 at 02:27
  • @Izkata: They are not synonyms to computer professionals, but they might as well be synonyms to laypeople, and EL&U is a site for everyone, not just computer professionals. Note that this question is tagged neologisms and does not have a tag for computer terminology. Yes, the files are on a computer. But laypeople have to use computers too. When laypeople say "this file is zipped" they might mean this file is compressed in some format which may or may not be ZIP and with today's tools, that is perfectly fine and very, very easy to deal with. – John Y Sep 02 '12 at 14:16
-3

It's better to use zipped. This is the most commonly used in the IT field.

RegDwigнt
  • 97,231
Rejeesh
  • 277
  • Zip is a Microsoft thing; it does not mean compressed in general. – tchrist Aug 31 '12 at 12:55
  • 4
    I don't think it's a microsoft thing. The inventor of PKZIP, which gave the name zip, was not part of microsoft, almost sure of that. – Stephane Rolland Aug 31 '12 at 13:00
  • It's true that ZIP was the most popular - and de-facto standard - for compressing files on Microsoft platforms, while unix usually went with tar-and-compress or tar-and-gzip, but it's still far from being a Microsoft thing. Not everything that's not Unix is Microsoft. :) – Avner Shahar-Kashtan Aug 31 '12 at 14:16
  • 8
    "in the IT field" it is more common and far more correct to use the term "compressed" when talking generally about compressed files. – MrWhite Aug 31 '12 at 14:39
  • @AvnerShahar-Kashtan - GNU's not Unix! (Yeah, all right, but it had to be said). –  Sep 01 '12 at 20:46