• lickety-split •
Printable Version Pronunciation: li-ki-ti-split • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adverb
Meaning: Extremely fast or quickly.
Notes: Today's Good Word has a substantial if rather queer family of relatives. To cut quickly across the lawn is to run lickety-cut, fast horses run lickety-click on a hard surface, someone might ski lickety-smash into a tree if they are not careful. Lickety is used almost as a prefix in English, though we tend to hear it most in lickety-split.
In Play: Any sudden, fast motion qualifies for lickety-split: "William Arami leapt from his chair and ran down the hall lickety-split when he saw Marian Kind pass by." However, the motion need not be a person, animal, or vehicle: "Imogene, could you write up an innocent explanation of our CEO's arrest lickety-split and get it out over the wires before you leave today? Thanks."
Word History: The first component of today's Good Word comes from a slang use of the word lick meaning to run or move very fast: "Harley's wheels licked down the road like a bolt of lightning." When combined with other verbs, however, it not only converts them to adverbs but extends itself to lickety. This is probably the result of adding the common suffix -y to the phrase lick it, as to lick it down to the store as fast as you can. (We are now moving lickety-split to thank Suzanne La Pounte for suggesting today's Good if odd Word.)
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