| "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo" Roud #18267 |
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| Written by | Traditional |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Form | Nursery rhyme and counting-out game |
"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe", which can be spelled a number of ways, is a children's counting rhyme, used to select a person to be "it" for games (such as tag) and similar purposes such as counting out a child that has to be stood down from a group of children as part of a playground game. It is one of a large group of similar 'Counting-out rhymes' where the child pointed-to by the chanter on the last syllable is 'counted out'. The rhyme has existed in various forms since well before 1820,[1] and is common in many languages including German forms, with similar-sounding nonsense syllables.
Since many similar counting rhymes existed earlier, it is difficult to ascertain this rhyme's exact origin.
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Common modern versions include:
Common variations, particularly in United Kingdom, substitute "tinker", "tigger" or "chicken" for tiger and use "squeals" rather than hollers.[2] Sometimes additional lines are added at the end of the rhyme to draw out or manipulate the selection process or make it seem less predetermined, such as:
Occasionally the line copies 'Ip dip':
Another Variation that can be found within Australia includes:
One major theory about the origins of the rhyme is that it is descended from Old English or Celtic counting, as can be seen in the East Anglian Shepherd's count, "Ina, mina, tehra, methera" or the Cornish "Eena, mea, mona, mite".[2] There are similar examples of children's rhymes that were collected in England that are more obviously counting rhymes up to ten, such as 'Ya, ta, tethera, pethera, pip, Slata, lata, covera, dovera, dick'. More surprising was the one recorded in America from a Native American by Charles Withers which went 'Een, teen, tether, fether, fip; Sather, lather, gother, dather, dix'. The first American record of a similar rhyme is from about 1815, when children in New York are said to have repeated the rhyme:
The rhyme seems to have been unknown in England among collectors until the late nineteenth century, although it was found by Henry Bolton in the USA, Ireland and Scotland in the 1880s.[2] He also found a similar rhyme in German:
The most common English form seems to be
but there is a well-entrenched version, collected from Durham.
Variations of this rhyme, with the nonsense/counting first line have been collected since the 1820s, such as this Scottish one ..
More recognizable as a variation, which even includes the 'toe' and 'olla' from Kipling's version is
...which was one of many variants of 'counting out Rhymes' collected by Bolton in 1888.[5]
Another possibility is that the British occupiers of India brought a doggerel version of an Indian children's rhyme used in the game of carom billiards:
Another rhyme popular in India which closely matches the initial couplet in similar-sounding words goes like... अक्कड़ बक्कड़ बाम्बे बो (Akkad Bakkad Bambay Bo)
अस्सी नब्भे पूरे सौ (Assi Nabbe Pooray Sau = 80 90 total 100)
सौ में लगी बिल्ली (Sau mein lagi billi = Buy a cat with 100)
बिल्ली भागी दिल्ली (Billi bhaagi Dilli = The cat ran away to Delhi)
बोले शेख चिल्ली (Bolay Shekh Chilli = The Saint Chilly said...)
खेले डंडा गिल्ली (Khelay Danda Gilli = (They) Play (game called) Danda Gilli)
गिल्ली गई टूट (Gilli gayi toot = The Gilli Broke)
बच्चे गए रूठ (Bachchay Gaye Rooth = The children went cross)
बच्चों को मनाएंगे (Bachchon ko manainge = We'll coerce the kids)
रस मलाई खायेंगे (Ras-Malayi Khainge = They'll eat sweet dish)
रस मलाई अच्छी (Ras-Malayi Achchee = The sweet dish was good)
हमने खायी मच्छी (Hamne Khayi Machchee = We ate fish)
मच्छी में काँटा (Machchee mein kaanta = The fish had a bone)
पड़ेगा ज़ोर से चांटा (Padeyga zor se chhanta = You'll get a slap)
This is usually followed by the last person being either selected for his turn in the game, or slapped softly.
David Zincavage asserts that the origin is Scottish and posits that the first line of the verse is a corruption of Inimicus animo, a Latin phrase that translates as "enemy of the soul." The second line uses "nigger" and this goes to early depictions of the devil as black, as opposed to the modern red; we still have references to darkness as being evil. If you catch the devil by the toe, it won't cause his cloven hoof any pain. If, instead, you've pinched a human's toe instead, he'll yelp, and since you have made a mistake in identifying him, you should release him.[7]
Older versions of this rhyme had the word nigger (instead of tiger) and are less popular now because of the waning public acceptability of the word, including:
This version was similar to that reported as the most common version among American schoolchildren in 1888.[8] It was used in the chorus of Bert Fitzgibbon's 1906 song "Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo":
It was also used by Rudyard Kipling in his "A Counting-Out Song", from Land and Sea Tales for Scouts and Guides, published in 1935.[10] This may have helped popularise this version in the United Kingdom where it seems to have replaced all earlier versions until late twentieth century.[2]
Iona and Peter Opie pointed out in The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes that the word "nigger" was common in American folk-lore, but unknown in any English traditional rhyme or proverb.[2] This, combined with evidence of various other versions of the rhyme in the UK that pre-date this version, would seem to suggest that this version originated in America, although the apparently American word 'Holler' was first recorded in written form in the fourteenth century, whereas the words 'Niger' or 'Nigger' were first seen in the sixteenth century in Britain, with their current disparaging meaning (O.E.D.). The 'olla' and 'toe' are found as nonsense words in some nineteenth century versions of the rhyme, and it could possibly be that the original 'Where do all the Frenchmen Go?' (probably originating during one of the periods of Anglo-French warfare) was later on replaced by the controversial version in the States, using some of the nonsense words.
Many people who grew up before the late 1960s are likely to report having heard or grown up with this controversial version of the rhyme. Since then, and especially after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, this variation has become quite rare in the U.S, although it was used in television programs broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC as late as 1972 (see Television listing in Popular Culture, below).
There are considerable variations in the lyrics of the rhyme, including from early twentieth century in the United States of America:
A distinct version of the rhyme in the United Kingdom, collected in the 1960s, is:
A jocular use of a form of the rhyme by a Southwest Airlines flight attendant, encouraging passengers to sit down so the plane could take off, led to a 2003 lawsuit charging the airline with racism. Two versions of the rhyme were attested in court; both "Eeny meeny miny mo, Please sit down it's time to go" and "Pick a seat, it's time to go". The passengers in question were black people and stated that they were humiliated.[12]
There are innumerable scenes in books, films, plays, cartoons and video games, as well as lines from many songs, in which "Eeny meeny ..." or a variant is used by a character who is making a choice, either for serious or comic effect.
The phrase sometimes appears in other ways, including: