Zipperhead

zipper + head. From the leather helmets formerly used by early Canadian armoured crewmen, with a pattern of stitching resembling a zipper. There is also a folk etymology referring to the zippers on armoured-vehicle crew suits (re-purposed flight suits).

Full definition of zipperhead

Noun

1. (Canada, military slang) A soldier in the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps or in the Armoured Crewman military trade.

Synonyms

• trooper
• crewman, tanker, armoured crewman, armoured soldier
• tread-head, treadhead

1960s–1970s, zipper + head. Used by soldiers during the Korean and Vietnam Wars; multiple theories exist as to the specific origin. One is that if an Asian person was shot in the middle of the forehead with a machine gun, the head would split as if being unzipped; another, that the appearance of tire tracks on a body having been run over by a military Jeep resembled a zipper.

Noun

1. (US, military slang, derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) A person of Asian descent.

Synonyms

• zipperlid
• gook, slopehead