# Lickety Split
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/248599
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
**Created:** [June 4, 2004, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/248599 "2004-06-04T11:38:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Fotios](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotios)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2004, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/248599/1 "2004-06-04T11:38:00Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2004, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/248599/2 "2004-06-04T12:48:11Z")
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”?](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mlicketysplit.html)
No biggie, you’ll know for next time.
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### Author:  [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2004, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/248599/3 "2004-06-04T13:09:31Z")
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)
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### Author:  [@Egoebel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Egoebel)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2004, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/248599/4 "2004-06-04T13:56:01Z")
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”
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### Author:  [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2004, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/248599/5 "2004-06-04T14:22:22Z")
> [@Egoebel](#):
>
> 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?
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### Author:  [@Dunes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunes)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2004, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/248599/6 "2004-06-04T16:04:59Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Egoebel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Egoebel)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2004, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/248599/7 "2004-06-04T16:05:34Z")
> [@Uncommon Sense](#):
>
> “moving along at a good clip”, maybe?
[Dictionary.com](http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=lick) cites lick, which I have heard in the Army and down south where my family relocated.
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### Author:  [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2004, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/248599/8 "2004-06-04T16:53:16Z")
> [@Dunes](#):
>
> 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.
A word stops being “borrowed” when most people who use it don’t know it’s foreign.
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### Author:  [@Fotios](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotios)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2004, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/248599/9 "2004-06-04T22:24:18Z")
Thanks for the welcome and yes I will provide the link next time!
Cheers,
F.
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### Author:  [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2004, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/248599/10 "2004-06-08T19:09:19Z")
So if something goes lickety-split then it won’t take a coon’s age to finish?
RR
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### Author:  [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2004, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/248599/11 "2004-06-08T21:27:41Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@cheezbro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cheezbro)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2004, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/248599/12 "2004-06-09T05:18:38Z")
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’. 😃
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2004, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/248599/13 "2004-06-11T01:11:43Z")
Rhyming slang, perhaps?
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### Author:  [@jcstolp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jcstolp)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2004, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/248599/14 "2004-06-14T22:41:41Z")
Perhaps the phrase is in reference to lightning licking a tree, and splitting it.
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### Author:  [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/248599/15 "2004-06-16T01:05:22Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/248599/16 "2004-06-16T01:56:30Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/248599/17 "2004-06-16T07:49:53Z")
> [@John W. Kennedy](#):
>
> A word stops being “borrowed” when most people who use it don’t know it’s foreign.
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.
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### Author:  [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/248599/18 "2004-06-16T11:33:04Z")
> [@Greg Charles](#):
>
> If people don’t remember it’s borrowed, it stops being borrowed?
In lexicography, yes.
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### Author:  [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/248599/19 "2004-06-16T15:35:19Z")
> [@C K Dexter Haven](#):
>
> 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.
Oh, my. This is gelding ridiculous.
RR
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### Author:  [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2004, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lickety-split/248599/20 "2004-06-21T03:45:53Z")
Feh. This unbridled silliness has gotten a bit old. Whoa, I say!