Our language is full of words that are just plain fun to say. This week, we took a close look at one of them: "lickety-split."
The term lickety-split popped up in the U.S. in the early 1800s as a playful way to say “very quickly” or “at full speed.” According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its earliest known appearance in print was in 1818 in Analectic Magazine: “Such are those clumsy expressions, ‘lickety split,’ ‘stripity stain,’ ‘niminy piminy,’ and a hundred other.”
"Lickety-split" is flexible too. It works as an adverb, “I’ll get to it lickety-split," or you can turn it into an adjective, “a lickety-split turnaround.” The OED even lists a verb form: “The show lickety-splitted along.”
As for where "lickety split" comes from, the "lick" probably comes from the verb "lick," meaning "to move at full speed." It could also come from the noun form meaning "at full speed," e.g. "at full lick." The suffix "ety" is simply a fun way to extend a one syllable word. This is where we get "hippity hop" and "hot diggity dog."
“Split,” meanwhile, eventually developed its own sense of “speed,” as in “at full split,” and may actually be a back-formation from lickety-split rather than the other way around. Interestingly, the verb "split" meaning “leave quickly," as in “I’ve got to split, "doesn’t show up until 1954.
In terms of frequency of use, "lickety split" has been on the rise in the last 25 years. However, Professor Anne Curzan had a hard time deciphering some of the dates, due to a cartoon character. In the mid-1980s, there was a My Little Pony named Lickety Split. She was the star of My Little Pony: The Movie in 1986, and her name adds some pony-powered noise to the data on "lickety split."
Another phrase that’s delightful to say is namby-pamby, and it has an amusing origin story. To hear that one, listen to the audio above.
