“Eeny, meeny, miny, mo” and the ambiguous history of counting-out rhymes

http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/04/16/losing-count/

by pepys • 11 years ago

45 18 11 years ago

jashmenn• 11 years ago

I love this idea that the essence of these poems are in the rhythm, vocalizations, and play and not in the specific words themselves.

When I was small, my parents would tell me a toe-counting rhyme, which I knew as "icky-pee, penny lou". I wanted to learn what the "real" words were and found this page [1]. In the comments there are dozens of variations on this same poem and none use the same phrasing we did.

Oral traditions seem to have a way of distilling information to essences over time vs. bit-wise copies.

[1] http://www.mamalisa.com/blog/the-origins-of-some-scandinavia...

baking• 11 years ago

It's a garbled version of a latin exorcism: "Inimicus animo"

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/18/messages/777.htm...

eplanit• 11 years ago

A more thorough history of the subject rhyme:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eeny,_meeny,_miny,_moe

WildUtah• 11 years ago

Used to be Paris Review articles were more than weak summaries of Wikipedia pages...

cafard• 11 years ago

We also used "Engine, engine number nine/Rolling down Chicago line" (etc.) long ago. And about 20 years ago, I heard children using it who appeared to be the US-born children of fairly recent immigrants.

Symbiote• 11 years ago

The usual rhyme at the small village school in England I attended in 1993ish was "Ip dip, dog shit, fucking bastard, dirty git, you are not it!"

But the better ones had a variable, and I could reliably make myself "out" if I had the chance to select it. This was sometimes considered unfair.

"There's a party on the hill, can you come? Bring your own bread and butter and a bun. Who is your best friend?" "David" "D-A-V-I-D" (final letter means out!).

"Ippy-dippy-dation, my operation, how many buses in a London station?" "Twelve." "1 2 3 4 ...12, O-U-T spells out!"

bitwize• 11 years ago

A variant of this is used in the rap song "The Choice Is Yours" by Black Sheep:

Engine, engine number nine, on the New York transit line; if my train falls off the track, pick it up, pick it up, pick it up...!

When I was a kid we had Eeny Meeny, One Potato Two Potato, and this variant:

"Bubble gum, bubble gum, in a dish, how many pieces do you wish?"

Then the person tagged on "wish" would say a number like five, and the count would continue:

"One, two, three, four, five, and you are not it, you dirty, rotten, stinking tit!" And the person on "tit" would be out.

There was another one that began "Quack-A-Doodle Oh My" that was mainly used by girls. The girls would stand in a circle with their arms out, one hand up and one hand down over the neighboring girl's up hand. On each one girl would move her down hand in an arc and slap the next girl's down hand with it, which was her signal to do the same on the next beat, creating a "wave" effect.

The rhyme went:

Quack-a-doodle oh my, quack, quack, quack,

Dance to the trees going trigga-trigga-track!

Follow, follow, follow follow follow!

One, two, three, four, five!

Sometimes the count would go up to eight. Whoever was slapped on the last count is out and must leave the circle -- EXCEPT if she withdraws her hand at the last possible second, causing the previous girl to tag herself out.

Now, if only someone can find the origin to "Miss Lucy Had A Steamboat" and "My Darling Playmate"...

wickedlogic• 11 years ago

I came across this a while back also when watching videos about the Lake District/Valley of Stone area in England. The video and accent helps alot to understand the method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZTEvdf3KP4

tremendo2• 11 years ago

It's for counting!? I always had this idea it was like a pseudo-random way of picking one option out of several, like in my part of México we (used-to) use (not-really Spanish) "de tín marín de do-pingüé, cúcara mácara tîtiri füé, yo no fuí, fué te-té, pégale, pégale que ese mero fué". Which reminds me of another one I learnt from a book as a child but have never heard it from anyone else out in the open: "pin-pin, zarambolín, el ratón comer comer, el ratón comer comer, ¿cuánto das por el ratón? cien tostones y un doblón, arre mula carretera pin-pin estás afuera!".

hugopeixoto• 11 years ago

That's what "counting out" means. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counting-out_game

tremendo2• 11 years ago

Thanks for the clarification. Many years living in the US but still haven't learned all little references like this one.

colanderman• 11 years ago

It is used for "randomly" picking at option. I remember when I was young realizing I could compute the remainder and "cheat" when using this.

Not sure why they call it a "counting-out" rhyme, though I guess I can't think of a better thing to call it.

Side note, the way I learned it, the last line was always "out goes Y-O-U". Much better than simply repeating the first line over :)

anjbe• 11 years ago

This is how I learned it growing up (southwestern US in the mid 1990s):

Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo

Catch a tiger by the toe

If he hollers, make him pay

Fifty dollars every day

My mother told me to pick the very best one

and you are [not] it

sethammons• 11 years ago

ink-a-bink-a bottle of ink, the cork fell out and you stink

Eeny, meeny, miny, mo catch a tiger by the toe if he hollers, let him go eeny, meeny, miny, mo

mg1982• 11 years ago

Scotland (late 80s/early 90s): (adults present) Ibble ubble black bubble ibble ubble out (no adults) It dit dog shit you are not it

Don't really hear it any more though - kids today with their "hash" tags and their clever telephones are really missing out, I think.

JacobAldridge2• 11 years ago

We use to run (Northern NSW, Australia), as an eeny meeny variant, 'Ip dip dog shit / You stood in it / What colour was it?' where 'it' would then name a colour, which would then be spelled out in a counting round (R-E-D) - and then 'D' would be 'It'.

If you were called upon first and knew enough colours of differing lengths, and I did, then you could ensure any specific person would become 'It' at the end of the round.

JacobAldridge2• 11 years ago

I'd be curious as to the timing of the 'Tiger' iteration, and its spread. Certainly growing up where I did (Northern NSW, Australia) in the late '80s, we used the original wording.

No doubt some of that was a lack of cultural awareness - it was a fairly white part of the world, especially in private education. I'm a mongrel breed, which basically just means I always look like I have a nice tan but nothing more, and even I got called a 'nigger' once playing football because I was the darkest person that kid had ever seen.

groks• 11 years ago

A list of several dozen posted recently to twitter:

https://storify.com/mooseallain/picking-rhymes

“Eeny, meeny, miny, mo” and the ambiguous history of counting-out rhymes

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