Alive and kicking

The expression ‘alive and kicking’ was coined in the late 18th/early 19th century and is still widely used today. Its allusion to vigour and vivacity has caused it to be adopted as a slogan or title in various spheres – dance troupes, children’s television programmes, kick-boxing, anti-abortion groups etc. The earliest citation of ‘alive and kicking’ that I can find in print is from 1801, from the anonymous author of the travelogue Farther excursions of the observant pedestrian, 1801. In this the narrator is interviewing a ‘crab-boy’, who observes:

“I left them [the crabs] all alive and kicking, your honour, when I came to church.”

The recent youth slang term kickin’, meaning ‘excellent’ or ‘exciting’, was coined in the USA in the 1980s. The earliest examples I can find date from 1989; for example, this piece from the Usenet Newsgroup ‘Comp.lang.lisp‘, from April that year:

“It [the GNU Emacs editor] provides a kickin’ interface.

Community Feedback

Some have speculated that the anonymous author might have been a woman, as women sometimes published anonymously during this period. However, there is no evidence regarding the author’s gender, and the term Anonymous does not imply any particular identity.