Etymologically
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lipstick

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 25 October 2026 at 23:48. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈlɪpstɪk/[1]
  • US: /ˈlɪpˌstɪk/[1]

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

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