lipstick

Etymology

It is formed from English lip + stick,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} a stick of lip rouge.^[3] Lip is inherited from Old English lippa,^[3][7] and stick is from sticca (“twig, rod, peg”).^[3][7] Dictionary.com marks it as an Americanism.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A stick of cosmetic for colouring the lips: 1880, in E. James's Amateur Negro Minstrel's Guide.^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the stick itself and then, by extension, the cosmetic for the lips.^[2][7] Etymonline notes that by 1965 it was used of lip colour sold in pots and palettes, and liquid lipstick is recorded by 1938.^[3] The verb, to apply lipstick, dates from 1926;^[2][8] from 1927 lipstick was also the name of a shade of red.^[2] The phrase to put lipstick on a pig, to make superficial improvements to something basically unattractive, is recorded from 1985, originally in the United States;^[2] in darts slang the lipstick is the treble twenty (2003).^[2]

Timeline

• 1880 – a stick of cosmetic for the lips.^[2][4][3]
• 1926 – verb, to apply lipstick.^[2][8]
• 1927 – a shade of red.^[2]
• 1938 – liquid lipstick.^[3]
• 1965 – lip colour sold in pots or palettes.^[3]
• 1985 – to put lipstick on a pig.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A coloured, waxy cosmetic for the lips, usually in the form of a small stick in a case: she touched up her lipstick in the mirror.^{[7][9][10][4]}
2. A stick of this cosmetic with its case.^[7][4][2]

Verb

1. To put lipstick on (the lips), or to apply lipstick.^[4][2][5]

Word family

• lipsticked
• lipstick plant
• lipstick tree

Related words

• lip
• stick

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press