# How did we come up with "icky"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-we-come-up-with-icky/1033403>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [September 26, 2026, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-we-come-up-with-icky/1033403 "2026-09-26T17:20:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2026, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-we-come-up-with-icky/1033403/5 "2026-09-26T18:25:19Z")

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For reasons I can’t imagine, Americans had a fad for baby talk after WWI. That etymonline link puts “icky-boo” around 1920. Helen Kane became famed for her baby talk routine and “boop-oop-a-doop” catchphrase, which spawned the Betty Boop of cartoons.

Dorothy Parker spoofed Winnie the Pooh with:

> _“And it is that word ‘hummy,’ my darlings, that marks the first place in The House at Pooh Corner at which Tonstant Weader Fwowed up.”_

It lasted quite a while. In the 1932 _Horsefeathers_, college widow Connie tries to sweet talk college president Groucho into revealing football secrets.

> **Connie:** “If icky baby don’t learn about the football signals, icky baby gonna cwy.”
> 
> **Professor Wagstaff:** “If icky girl keep on talking that way, big stwong man’s gonna kick all of her teef wight down her fwoat.”

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