# Lickety Split
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/178001
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 28, 2003, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/178001 "2003-05-28T13:17:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@welby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/welby)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2003, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/178001/1 "2003-05-28T13:17:44Z")
Where did this term come from?
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### Author:  [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2003, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/178001/2 "2003-05-28T13:52:02Z")
It seems that it’s the remaining 19th century colloquilism from a rash of such phrases, as lickety-click, lickety-quick [etc](http://www.mindlesscrap.com/origins/more-b.htm#L)
Or for a more detailed [discussion.](http://www.wordwizard.com/clubhouse/founddiscuss.asp?Num=785)
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### Author:  [@welby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/welby)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2003, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/178001/3 "2003-05-28T14:29:14Z")
Thanks **DeVena**
Of course now I feel like an idiot, since I could probably have googled the result.
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### Author:  [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2003, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/178001/4 "2003-05-28T15:00:02Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by welby \*
> \*\*Thanks **DeVena**
>
> Of course now I feel like an idiot, since I could probably have googled the result. \*\*
Yes, you probably could have, \*\*but then what would we do in this _forum_?
* * *
A couple of weeks ago a waiter said to my wife and I:
"Your salad will be out, before you can say “lickety split”
Then he grinned and added:
“If you say it verrrrry slowly.”
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2003, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/178001/5 "2003-05-29T03:10:42Z")
**DeVena**'s site(wordwizard) has the basics correct. But I’m not sure that I’d rely on that site for all my answers.
If you notice, the basic format is that a question is posted, and people answer the question. That’s all well and good if the posters know what they’re talking about.
The second poster, Susumu Enomoto , correctly answered the question, giving pretty good cites along the way. Problem is, he/she started out the answer by saying …
> [@](#):
>
> Robert Hendrickson writes in Yankee Talk (1996):
.
Hendrickson wrote many a book and article about word origins. Many of his entries are WRONG! You simply cannot trust his attributions. One of the sloppier writers out there on etymology.
On the subject of “lickety split,” he got it right.