# Is it s a lollipop or a sucker?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934>\
**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:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934/41 "2006-06-09T12:07:19Z")

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> [@](#):
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> We always called any candy on a stick a sucker (growing up in So Cal). I guess I say lollipop now because it just sounds more fun, but I don’t remember ever using the term or hearing it used while I was young.

**WOOKINPANUB** must be my brother from another mother. I grew up in San Diego ('60s and early '70s, in my case), and we always called all varieties of candy-on-a-stick ‘suckers.’ Remember Charms? Those were my favorites. I switched over to ‘lollipop’ in high school because it’s a fun word.

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**Author:** ![loquitur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c37758/32.png) [@loquitur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/loquitur)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934/42 "2006-06-09T14:42:39Z")

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Suffering Sucatash! There appears to be no resolution to my question. The regional variation (even by a few kilometers, it seems) is amazing. But my friends don’t have to know that. I’ll just claim that the Teeming Millions agreed with my usage.

[QUOTE=pulykamell]  
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.  
[/QUOTE]

Timmins, Ontario … way up north. Home of Shania Twain and (almost) Stompin’ Tom Connors.

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**Author:** ![rivulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rivulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rivulus)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-s-a-lollipop-or-a-sucker/359934/43 "2006-06-09T16:09:21Z")

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Another data point: as a kid in the 70s, in Saskatchewan, my friends and I called them “suckers.” “Lollipop” would have been uncool and baby-ish – like Shirley Temple dancing around in ringlets and short dresses.

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