lollipop

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun ice cream or water ice on a small wooden stick
  2. noun hard candy on a stick

Etymology

By surface analysis, loll (“laze, hang loose”) + y + pop (“shot, try, burst, enter”); likely through lolly (“head, tongue”). Attested from 1784. Compare lollygag and lollypoop. An unlikely derivation is from Romani loli (“red”) + phabaj (“apple”); candy apples are often red and placed on a stick to keep the person's hands dry, similar to lollipops. However candy apples were not well-known until a century after the first known use of the word lollipop, and the original lollipop was likely a small item like modern penny candy.

In classic literature

Synonyms

ice lolly, lolly, popsicle

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