Billiken

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A charming figure traditionally represented as a rotund, grinning statuette, thought to attract good luck and fortune
2. A whimsical talisman originating in folklore, symbolizing happiness and the granting of wishes
3. A small, rotund figure with a smiling face, believed to bring positive fortune and happiness

Etymology: Florence Pretz, an American artist, is credited with coining the name for the grinning figure, and she seems to have found it in Bliss Carman's 1896 poem "Mr. Moon: A Song of the Little People." Carman's verses were full of invented fairy-folk, and "Billiken" was one of the names he gave to these small creatures. Pretz took the word and gave it a body, a rotund, grinning statuette that became the figure we now know. The figure caught on quickly. Its popularity as a good-luck charm grew from that original design, and the name stuck to the statuette rather than to the poem's imaginary sprites. The creature's roots in a whimsical poem about little people explain why the name sounds more like a playful fairy-tale coinage than a word with any older history.