Expert: Kristy Lashbaugh - 6/6/2007

Question
What is the origin of the word lickety-split?  I know it refers to moving quickly,
but just wondered what the earlier reference might be.

Answer
From the Oxford English Dictionary (I love this resource)

   Usu. prefixed to another word, as lickety-split, at full speed; headlong. Also (nonce-wd.) as v. Also lickety-cut, -smash, -wallop, etc.

1817 D. MCKILLOP Poems 33, I rattl'd owre the A, B, C, as fast as lickitie An' read like hickitie. 1831 Boston Even. Transcript 4 June 2/2 He ran down the street licketty cut, and is probably at home by this time. 1847 J. S. ROBB Streaks of Squatter Life 116 Away they started, ‘lickety-click’, and arrived at the winning-post within touching distance of each other. 1848 in Amer. Speech (1935) X. 40 Lickoty liner, going very fast. 1858 Harper's Mag. May 766/2 There they had it, lickety-switch, rough-and-tumble. 1859 BARTLETT Dict. Amer. (ed. 2) Lickety Split, very fast, headlong; synonymous with the equally elegant phrase ‘full chisel’. ‘He went lickety split down hill.’ 1863 L. M. ALCOTT Hospital Sk. iii. 40 When my mate, Eph Sylvester, caved, with a bullet through his head, I got mad, and pitched in, licketty cut. 1869 MRS. STOWE Oldtown Folks xxviii. 358, I tell you if they didn't whip up an' go lickety-split down that 'ere hill. 1886 [see BUMP v.1 2e]. 1897 [see BAND n.3 4b]. 1911 R. D. SAUNDERS Col. Todhunter ix. 122 You're worse'n a old huntin' dog that goes sky-hootin' off lickety-split after a rabbit. 1928 ‘BRENT OF BIN BIN’ Up Country ix. 141 They rattled the vehicle lickety-smash at a hand-gallop across the flower-strewn plains. 1934 W. SAROYAN Daring Young Man (1935) 131 And then he was running lickety split across the school grounds. 1949 O. NASH Versus 111 Firemen, what is your destination?.. You have lickety-splitted by so often that my thoughts Are utterly split-licketed. 1949 POWYS & BOLTON tr. Guitry's Don't Listen Ladies in Plays of Year I. 566, I was coming along the street not thinking of anything, and suddenly you came out and shot past me, lickerty-split. 1949 WODEHOUSE Uncle Dynamite iii. 48 If I was you, I'd hop into that car of yours and drive lickerty-split to London and get another bust. 1955 E. POUND Classic Anthol. II. 87 We took out our cars lickety-clickety at the call. 1960 V. NABOKOV Bend Sinister ii. 17 The old men overtook him in their turn, clattering lickety-split through the mist. 1961 B. FERGUSSON Watery Maze x. 245 While going lickety-spit..they had come up against the formidable 15th Panzer Grenadier Division.., and they were lucky not to have been chased into the sea. 1972 A. FOWLES Double Feature xiii. 240 If one of his outriders radios in that Chau Chieu is there he'll come licketty split. 1972 Last Whole Earth Catalog (Portola Inst.) 305/3 Just like that. Stopped in here a few minutes, then took off up that creek lickety-split.


Etymology: from "lick" for hastily done like "lick and a promise" for hasty washing.