zapper

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English zap

Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.

Proto-Italic *-āzijos

Latin -āriusnom.

Latin -āriusbor.

Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz

Proto-West Germanic *-ārī

Old English -ere

Middle English -ere

English -er

English zapper

From zap + -er.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: zăpʹə(r), IPA^(key): /ˈzæp.ə(ɹ)/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æpə(ɹ)

Noun

zapper (plural zappers)

1. (colloquial) A remote control for a television.

   The news is starting on the other channel; hand me the zapper.

2. (colloquial) A device that electrifies or electrocutes.

   Hyponym: bug zapper

   • 2005, Robert Wood, Pushing Envelopes, page 51:

     Miranda is not the sort of person to carry a zapper but she has an oar that would cause a dog a lot more grief if it caught it full on.

3. (colloquial, figuratively, by extension) Anything that exterminates.
   • 1989, Microtimes, volume 6, page 140:

     If games are your life, the choice of a joystick is desperately important. Casual alien-zappers can get by with the cheapest generic Taiwanese clone-stick […]

   • 2009, Jeffrey Bernstein, Liking the Child You Love:

     You are going to go from being a toxic-thought overreactor to a toxic-thought zapper.

4. (slang) A microwave oven.
   • 2011, Bob Cohn, To Catch a Catch, page 49:

     I hate to spoil your microwave testimonial, but they were actually cooked in the regular oven this morning and just re-heated in the zapper.

Derived terms

• like a bug to a zapper

Translations

remote control

• Finnish: kaukosäädin (fi), (colloquial) kake (fi)
• French: zapette (fr) f, zappette (fr) f
• German: Fernbedienung (de) f
• Spanish: mando a distancia m
• Swedish: fjärrkontroll (sv) c
• Ukrainian: пульт керування (pulʹt keruvannja)

device that electrifies or electrocutes

• German: Elektroschocker (de) m, Elektroschockgerät n

anything that exterminates

• German: Vernichter (de) m

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English zap.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /za.pe/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

Verb

zapper

1. to channel-hop, channel surf
2. (figuratively) to dither, change one's opinion rapidly, vacillate
3. to skip over
4. (informal) to forget

Conjugation

Conjugation of zapper (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	zapper
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	zappant /za.pɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		zappé /za.pe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	zappe /zap/	zappes /zap/	zappe /zap/	zappons /za.pɔ̃/	zappez /za.pe/	zappent /zap/
	imperfect	zappais /za.pɛ/	zappais /za.pɛ/	zappait /za.pɛ/	zappions /za.pjɔ̃/	zappiez /za.pje/	zappaient /za.pɛ/
	past historic2	zappai /za.pe/	zappas /za.pa/	zappa /za.pa/	zappâmes /za.pam/	zappâtes /za.pat/	zappèrent /za.pɛʁ/
	future	zapperai /za.pʁe/	zapperas /za.pʁa/	zappera /za.pʁa/	zapperons /za.pʁɔ̃/	zapperez /za.pʁe/	zapperont /za.pʁɔ̃/
	conditional	zapperais /za.pʁɛ/	zapperais /za.pʁɛ/	zapperait /za.pʁɛ/	zapperions /za.pə.ʁjɔ̃/	zapperiez /za.pə.ʁje/	zapperaient /za.pʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	zappe /zap/	zappes /zap/	zappe /zap/	zappions /za.pjɔ̃/	zappiez /za.pje/	zappent /zap/
	imperfect2	zappasse /za.pas/	zappasses /za.pas/	zappât /za.pa/	zappassions /za.pa.sjɔ̃/	zappassiez /za.pa.sje/	zappassent /za.pas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	zappe /zap/	—	zappons /za.pɔ̃/	zappez /za.pe/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Further reading

• “zapper”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012