The word 'zipper' originated as a proprietary name for a boot with a new type of fastening, trademarked by the B.F. Goodrich Company in 1925. It is an agent noun derived from the verb 'zip', which is onomatopoeic, imitating the sharp, quick sound associated with speed or a sudden movement. The '-er' suffix follows a common English pattern for forming agent nouns from verbs, indicating the thing that performs the action (in this case, the device that 'zips'). Thus, the term's journey is from an imitative sound, to a verb meaning to move swiftly or fasten, to a trademarked noun for the fastening device itself, which eventually became the generic term.

The word is a simplex noun derived from a proprietary brand name. It is not productively composed of separable morphemes in modern English.