Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 194

The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

Lollipop

Grose excelled himself with this definition, as it’s the earliest that is known for the word (although the OED might be in with a shout here, although they had a different spelling), noting the word meant “sweet lozenges purchased by children”. As Grose noted elsewhere in his dictionary, the word ‘loll’ relates to the tongue, and ‘pop’ is probably just from the sound that eating such a sweet would make.

Until around the Second World War, the words lollypop and lollipop were usually about the same amount, with lollipop only becoming the preferred spelling in the last few decades.