# Is it s a lollipop or a sucker? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 8, 2006, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934 "2006-06-08T19:03:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![loquitur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c37758/32.png) [@loquitur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/loquitur)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934/21 "2006-06-08T21:52:25Z")
Soft string handle? Never heard of them (and I’m glad of it). No self-respecting Timmins boy (my home town) would be caught dead with a string dangling from his mouth. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934/22 "2006-06-08T21:53:31Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] Anybody else hate getting [these kind](http://www.candyfavorites.com/shop/p985.htm) for Halloween? [/QUOTE] Nah. They tasted just as good. I never knew the reason for the loopy handle was safety, though. “You can’t have a sucker with a straight stick! You might poke your eye out!” ---
**Author:** ![BlackHeart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c77e96/32.png) [@BlackHeart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackHeart)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934/23 "2006-06-08T21:53:32Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] [hijack] Anybody else hate getting [these kind](http://www.candyfavorites.com/shop/p985.htm) for Halloween? [/hijack] [/QUOTE] I always accidentally ingested bits of tightly twisted paper. I HATE getting those, but I ate them all anyway. I grew up calling them lollipops. Everyone else I knew called them lollipops. I only heard the term “sucker” when I moved to Toronto 6 six years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934/24 "2006-06-08T21:54:37Z")
[QUOTE=loquitur] Hmmm. First, I wasn’t able to access the forum search function, so apologies to all that this has been discussed. (still not sure why I can’t search). Second, apologies to all for the extra ‘s’ in my thread title (not sure why I can’t edit my post). And third, I’ve definitely heard ‘sucker’ before (referring to candy, of course) in my part of the woods, Northern Ontario. I would go so far as to say that it appears to be more common on websites than ‘lolli’ for candy-on-a-stick. Anyway, I guess I’ll consider your post as one vote for there being no difference. [/QUOTE] I usually hear people saying sucker around here (Western NY), which is pretty close to Ontario. Oh, and you can’t search because you’re a guest. ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934/25 "2006-06-08T22:23:35Z")
Ohio, 1970s: My mom, teachers, TV, etc. called them lollipops. On the playground, they were suckers. ---
**Author:** ![MadPansy64](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@MadPansy64](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadPansy64)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934/26 "2006-06-08T22:25:58Z")
[QUOTE=Bobotheoptimist] “Sucker” is flat and “lollipop” is spherical. Colorado. [/QUOTE] Huh? Dum-dums & Tootsie-pops were suckers, the fancy giant flat spiral-y ones were lollipops. Same place. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![MrSquishy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9e5f3/32.png) [@MrSquishy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrSquishy)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934/27 "2006-06-08T22:35:18Z")
[QUOTE=Bobotheoptimist] “Sucker” is flat and “lollipop” is spherical. [/QUOTE] I’d say it’s pretty much the same here, in Alberta. Or at least it was when I was a kid. On preview, I have to agree with **MadPansy64** though, that those big flat spirally ones that you see in cartoons are definitely lollipops. I’ve never heard of a dum-dum, though. [QUOTE=Bobotheoptimist] Colorado. [/QUOTE] This prompted me to look at your location, and now I’ve got that song in my head. [QUOTE=Crafter\_Man] > **[Lollipop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lollipop)** > > A lollipop is a type of sugar candy usually consisting of hard candy mounted on a stick and intended for sucking or licking. Different informal terms are used in different places, including lolly and sucker. Lollipops are available in many flavors and shapes. Lollipops are available in several colors and flavors, particularly fruit flavors. Numerous companies produce lollipops in dozens of flavors and many different shapes. They can range from very small candies bought in bulk and given away as... [/QUOTE] I always wonder when I see these apropos Wikipedia quotes whether someone who is following the SD thread has just gone and edited the Wikipedia article! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934/28 "2006-06-08T22:58:21Z")
Hasn’t everybody in the USA been told “Don’t run with a sucker in your mouth, you’ll fall and get killed.” ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934/29 "2006-06-08T23:13:36Z")
[QUOTE=MrSquishy] I always wonder when I see these apropos Wikipedia quotes whether someone who is following the SD thread has just gone and edited the Wikipedia article! 🙂 [/QUOTE] Nah, [all the changes made today](http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lollipop&diff=57562790&oldid=56616634) were just vandalism which has been reverted already. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934/30 "2006-06-08T23:50:53Z")
In 1950s Cleveland, they were all suckers. We knew of the word “lollipop,” but never used it; it seemed vaguely formal and old-fashioned (like those three guys in the “Lollipop Guild”). ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934/31 "2006-06-09T00:05:02Z")
Suckable candy on a stick was always a sucker to me. A lollipop was a mythical candy you saw on TV and it was too big to suck. You had to lick. It was huge and it was usually a little girl licking on it and otherwise being a spoiled brat. ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934/32 "2006-06-09T03:25:05Z")
[QUOTE=MadPansy64] Huh? Dum-dums & Tootsie-pops were suckers, the fancy giant flat spiral-y ones were lollipops. Same place. 😉 [/QUOTE] Tootsie-sucker? No, “Tootsie-pop”, like “Lollipop” only with a delicious Tootsie roll center. I think those years in Montana messed with **MadPansy64** ’s memory. 😃 [Dum-Dum pop](http://www.dumdumpops.com/) or [better pic](http://ourworld.cs.com/KoolKris2007/dumdums.JPG) I stand by my original assertion, but I’m not saying that other people in the house followed the same naming scheme. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934/33 "2006-06-09T04:20:38Z")
**Panache** makes an interesting point – in all the songs I know, it’s always “lollipop”, never “sucker”. That includes not only “the Lollipop Guild” in **The Wizard of Oz** , but lso “My Boy Lollipop” and “Lollipop” from the 1950’s. I can’t think of a single example of “sucker” meaning candy=on=a=stick in any song. “Sucker” onl applied to candy in those Warner Brothers cartoons where somebody suddenly found himself treading air over a deep gorge, plced there because of the machinations of Bugs Bunny or some other WB wiseguy, and whose realization that they had been had was made visually manifest by an image of such a candy, labeled “Sucker” so that you got the point. Can’t recall “sucker” as CoaS in book or magazines, either. But 've seen “lollipop” there. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934/34 "2006-06-09T05:06:42Z")
[QUOTE=loquitur] When I was a kid (in and around the 70s), I always referred to the spherical candies as lollipops and the flat circular ones as suckers. I thought everyone did – well at least I did until recently, having looked it up after a debate with some buddies. Most websites treat the words as synonymous, but I’m still not convinced. Tell me that Kojack only sucked on lollipops. Anyone? [/QUOTE] Where are you from? I’m from Chicago and have always used the terms as you’ve stated: flat ones are suckers, round ones are lollipops. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934/35 "2006-06-09T05:19:17Z")
Hijacking a bit: Rock Candy Long ago when the world was young, I used to sometimes get Rock Candy. They were individual pieced, roughly rounded lumps of candy, smallish but varied in size, and came in shades of gray/tan/black/brown. Actually, they pretty much looked like little rocks that had been tumbled smooth. (Sadly I don’t remember if they had any particular flavor beyond ‘sweet’.) Later we moved to New England, and Rock Candy mutated into chunks of giant sugar crystals – sometimes white, more often tinted some garish color – that had been grown on either sticks or strings. ☹ The subject happened to come up last week, and in a poll of 34 people at my work place, none had ever encountered anything but the crystallized sugar version. (I’d put this down ‘kids nowadays’ but the survey included several people 50+) Am I crazy? Am I only imagining the other kind of rock candy? ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934/36 "2006-06-09T06:02:02Z")
[QUOTE=StarvingButStrong] Am I crazy? Am I only imagining the other kind of rock candy? [/QUOTE] I think I remember those. They were not solid colors. but mottled, and really did look like smooth stones (and were as hard as stones, too), right? I don’t remember calling them rock candy, though…I think they may have been “candy pebbles” or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934/37 "2006-06-09T06:11:39Z")
[QUOTE=Biffy the Elephant Shrew] I think I remember those. They were not solid colors. but mottled, and really did look like smooth stones (and were as hard as stones, too), right? I don’t remember calling them rock candy, though…I think they may have been “candy pebbles” or something like that. [/QUOTE] Exactly! Mottled, or one colored with flecks of another – quite realistic rock-looking. And definitely hard. Since I posted that, I’ve been googling around. I found some ‘rock candy’ that wasn’t sugar crystals, but it was more irregular in sharp (shards rather than pebbles) and from the description it’s candy coated chocolate. (Think really badly formed M&Ms.) Now I will try googling on Candy Pebbles. Candy stones? Hmmmm. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934/38 "2006-06-09T06:18:29Z")
Aha, near success! [These](http://www.candywarehouse.com/candypebbles.html) look damn close to what I remember, though ‘jelly bean’ like doesn’t quite fit. I think the ones I ate were denser/tougher than that, closer to Juicy Fruit in texture. I suspect the flavor was something in the spice drop range – as a child, I’d have been less likely to recognise anise or ginger or clove as particular flavors, while I _would_ have known cherry or orange or grape. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934/39 "2006-06-09T11:26:29Z")
When I was growing up in New Jersey, “Rock Candy” was crystallized sugar made by placing a string in a supersaturated solution. They sold the resulting crystals – still with the string inside – in orange and blue boxes. It was colorless and beautifully transparent. Absolutely pure sugar, and probably murder on your teeth. The stuff they sell on a stick in New England (and elsewhere) is the same stuff, only now crystallized on a stick ionstead of a string, and with coloring and flavoring added. I think I’ve seen mottled “rock” candy, but it was never crystallized sugar. And I know I’ve never seen chocolate-coated rock candy of any type. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934/40 "2006-06-09T11:39:33Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] [hijack] Anybody else hate getting [these kind](http://www.candyfavorites.com/shop/p985.htm) for Halloween? [/hijack] [/QUOTE] We called them lollies or lollipops regardless. Western NY. What-the-heck, let’s add to the Kojak hijak: Bubbly drinks were pop, not soda, though I always called it soda 'cause I spent along time in NE. …I loved safety pops… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934.md?page=3)