What Does ‘Lallycooler’ Mean? The Surprising History Behind the Festival Name

When I first heard about the Lallycooler Music Festival, I was excited. Two days of live music under the South Dakota summer sky out at Bear in Sioux Falls? Yes please.

Then, when they announced the line-up, I got REALLY excited! It's going to be incredible seeing Pitbull, TLC, Sam Hunt, Uncle Kracker, and the whole lineup live in Sioux Falls. And seeing them all on the same stage with thousands of my South Dakota friends will be AMAZING!

But one thing has been stuck in my brain since the beginning: What is a 'Lallycooler?' Or, if it's a verb: how does one 'Lallycooler?' Basically, what is this word?
Read More: What To Know About The Sioux Falls 'Lallycooler' Music Festival

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But Really… What Does ‘Lallycooler’ Mean?

I mean, I get it, it's a fun word, and as soon as I heard it, I thought it sounded perfect. And it really hits the Search Engine Optimization sweet spot by being a unique word that isn't used much. The word sticks in your mind. But, where did the word come from?

According to the Lallycooler Music Festival's organizers, 'lallycooler' is an old-time American slang word that means 'a great success.'

The 1800s Slang Behind the Festival Name

How old-time? It's from the 1800s, a real golden age of American slang. Nineteenth-century America gave us slang like "Some Pumpkins," meaning something is really good. "I'm going to marry that gal, she's some pumpkins."

Or another one I love, 'Wake Snakes,' which means to get into mischief. I'm making it my mission to bring back both of these bits of slang. "Me and the boys are gonna wake snakes tonight. Then get tacos that are some pumpkins."

In my research (2020's slang for a Google search), there doesn't seem to be any clues as to where the term 'lallycooler' comes from. But I did find an example of the word being used.

Where Did the Word Come From?

National Public Radio dug into 1800s publications and found this sentence in a Kansas newspaper from 1890, "That north show window of Shute & Haskell's is a 'lally-cooler."

As for where it originated, it was likely just a fun-sounding compound word that, at the time, came out of a reference to something lost to time. It's like trying to find the first time someone walked up to their friends and said, "What's up?" It's just the weird and wonderful way the English language works.