# Slang Etymology : "Snap Your Sticks."

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-etymology-snap-your-sticks/297756>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 5, 2005, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-etymology-snap-your-sticks/297756 "2005-04-05T01:21:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2005, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-etymology-snap-your-sticks/297756/1 "2005-04-05T01:21:58Z")

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“It’ll snap your sticks.”

I’ve used it to connote “It will make you wild with glee” or “It will have you deliriously pleased.” Like a Dizzy Gillespie record or a roast-beef hero sandwich from that little place down on Fifth. And, for some reason, everyone seems to understand what I mean.

But I only remember seeing the phrase once in print, and that was in a 1960s underground comic by Spain Rodriguez, in which it was written out as “It’ll snap yer stix.”

IS this a real slang term? Or have Spain and I made something up between us? Has anyone else ever heard it used?

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**Author:** ![Jerevan\_Somerville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@Jerevan\_Somerville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jerevan_Somerville)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2005, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-etymology-snap-your-sticks/297756/2 "2005-04-05T01:50:30Z")

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I’ve never heard that expression before, but since I was just there earlier and digging into etymologies, I tried a site-search, then a web search, at [www.dictionary.com](http://www.dictionary.com) and found two instances of this phrase.

One came up in connection to making one’s own “Pick-up Sticks” (???):

> **[Clubhouse Magazine](https://www.focusonthefamily.com/clubhouse-magazine/)**
>
> Your child will love getting mail, and you’ll appreciate how Clubhouse Magazine reinforces Christian values & beliefs you hold dear.

(under Go: Step 1)

Leaving aside questions of “why”, here the reference is clearly mechanical, yet does seem vaguely suggestive (to me) of the metaphorical idiom you’re asking about.

The other occurs in a completely different context:

[http://www.jungcircle.com/archive.html](http://www.jungcircle.com/archive.html)

(towards bottom of page, link/header for August 1998)

and is clearly an idiomatic usage but with a different connotation, I think, than your usage. The exact meaning, though, seems uncertain and the phrase isn’t used in the linked article itself.

Cool phrase, though. I’ll watch this thread for more developments!

JS