Today I used the word ice-lolly. My flatmate professed to having never heard the term. I quizzed him as to what he called flavoured frozen water on a stick and he told me that it's a "popsicle". While I'm familar with the word surely it's a brand name. Isn't there a non-branded generic term for this? He claims not.
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
Just looking up "popsicle" quickly, I see that it is, indeed, a brand name, but I've never thought of it as anything but a generic term. I see in the Wikipedia article (there really is one) that "This article is about a particular brand of ice pop." So, I guess, officially, "ice pop" would be our equivalent to "ice lollie," but I honestly have never heard anybody refer to a popsicle as an ice pop here. Popsicle has become one of those generic terms like "Kleenex" and "Xerox," brand names almost universally used here to mean "tissue" and "photocopy."
Do they have ice lollies/pops in China, Bob?
Wordmatic
Posts: 1390 | Location: Near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
"Lolly" is short for "lollipop", which also contains "pop". I've seen "lollipop" on packaging, but I don't think anyone calls them anything other than "lollies".
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
