The idiom lickety-split what is it's origion how did it come to be used as a syonym for quick?

Answer 1

"Lickety-split," meaning fast or quickly, apparently arose in the 1830s and 1840s. One reference said that the term had been used by the Puritans back in the 1600s but gave no cite. I doubt it -- the earliest known appearance of lickety-split in print is 1843. "Lickety click," "lickety cut" and "lickety switch" were other terms from the 1840s meaning the same thing.

We don't know exactly where the expression came from, par for the course in etymological matters. One conjecture is that it derives from the verb "to lick" (with the tongue), whence "to go at great lick" or "to go at full lick," i.e., meaning to move at great speed. How licking aided in this process is not clear. I personally like the more amusing explanation that the word "lickety" is onomatopoetic, from the ticking of a clock or the clickety-clack of a train. After all, it was the early industrial revolution, and speed and time had new urgency. Steam engines, trains, and even household clocks made their appearance, changing the pace of society. Hence, a vocabulary arose to reflect the new era. Quite a few terms from the 1830s and 1840s, all meaning fast, speedily, quickly, are still in use today:

Quick as greased lightning (although "quick as lightning" dates to 1763, the grease was added in the 1840s)
Before you can say "Jack Robinson"
In a hustle
In a jiffy
Pronto
Like a house afire
Hell bent (the variation "Hell bent for leather" doesn't appear until the 1900s.)
Immediately if not sooner.

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Answer 2

LICKETY-SPLIT - " adv. 1859, American English, formed from earlier (1817) 'lickitie' very fast (irregular formation from 'lick,' n., used dialectally in the sense of fast) + split, n."From "The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology" by Robert K. Barnhart (HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 1995). Another source gives a first use as 1831 and lists these variations: lickety-brindle, lickety-cut, lickety smash, lickity-switch, lickoty-liner, and so forth. "Dictionary of American Regional English," Volume III by Frederic G. Cassidy (1996, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., and London, England).

Answer 3

LICKETY-SPLIT - " adv. 1859, American English, formed from earlier (1817) 'lickitie' very fast (irregular formation from 'lick,' n., used dialectally in the sense of fast) + split, n."From "The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology" by Robert K. Barnhart (HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 1995). Another source gives a first use as 1831 and lists these variations: lickety-brindle, lickety-cut, lickety smash, lickity-switch, lickoty-liner, and so forth. "Dictionary of American Regional English," Volume III by Frederic G. Cassidy (1996, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., and London, England).

Answer 4

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