it may be related to ‘licking’ being a form of lubrication, akin to the term ‘like greased…’ - in this sense ‘licking’ may be seen as ‘applying grease’ which definitely relates to making things slide faster.
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, Fotios, we’re glad to have you with us. An interesting thought on licking implying lubrication, which I didn’t find in any of the references that I checked.
When you start a thread, it’s helpful to other readers if you provide a link to the Column or (in this case) Staff Report in question. It helps everyone to be on the same page, saves time searching, etc. In this case, the Staff Report will appear this coming Tuesday and is found at What’s the origin of “lickety-split”?
No biggie, you’ll know for next time.
I can’t cite the movie, but I’d always heard this joke attributed to Mae West. . .
Mae (giving clothes to a Chinese launderer) : When can you get these clean for me?
Chinese man : Lickety split.
Mae: No thanks. Just do the laundry.
(I was going to refrain, till Dex made a wise-crack in the opening paragraph along these lines)
I always thought that the “lick” had to do with whipping horses in a carriage in order to get them to go faster. Another related expression could be “moving along at a good lick”
“moving along at a good clip”, maybe?
I don’t think “pronto” quite belongs with the rest of these idiomatic expressions. “pronto” is simply Spanish for “quick” and thus a borrowed word rather than an English idiom.
Dictionary.com cites lick, which I have heard in the Army and down south where my family relocated.
A word stops being “borrowed” when most people who use it don’t know it’s foreign.
Thanks for the welcome and yes I will provide the link next time!
Cheers,
F.
So if something goes lickety-split then it won’t take a coon’s age to finish?
RR
This is neither here nor there, but there’s a porn shop in downtown Minneapolis that’s named The Lickety Split. Now, whenever I see that phrase, that’s the place I think of. A little sad, really.
Not relevant to the query, but I’m reminded of the Sanford & Son episode in which Grady was cooking beef tongue and bananas–he called it ‘Lickety Split’. 
Rhyming slang, perhaps?
Perhaps the phrase is in reference to lightning licking a tree, and splitting it.
The Shorter Oxford has the verb “lick” - to run or ride at a good speed (slang, 1889).
I often hear this noun in the phrase “lick of speed”, for which a Google search turns up numerous examples.
With “lickety split” dating from the 1830s, the usage hibernicus cites is from the 1890s, so… um… we don’t want to put Horace before Descartes.
If people don’t remember it’s borrowed, it stops being borrowed? A disturbing number of my friends take a similar attitude towards books they’ve borrowed from me.
In lexicography, yes.
Oh, my. This is gelding ridiculous.
RR
Feh. This unbridled silliness has gotten a bit old. Whoa, I say!