Bellow are the lyrics of one of the accepted modern versions of the "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" rhyme and also an older version. And, this particular rhyme isnt only found in the US; kids in England, France, Denmark, Germany, and Zimbabwe all make decisions using similar-sounding rhymes. In other musical instances, this is not the case. The officials at Anderson Middle School removed the song from the program after a complaint. Walk us through the journey of this rhyme. Catch . My story begins a few days ago while playing tag with my kids. I can see right through you. "Its well known that theres some challenging language in the Gospel of John," Michael Marissen, a noted Bach scholar, said in a 2013 interview with WQXR-radio. The sisters claim was rejected both in court and in an appeal. Harvard PhD student Adrienne Raphel looked into its origins, and tells NPR's Rachel Martin it's found on playgrounds around the world. Despite language differences, the first lines of each version are remarkably alike. Gotta jump down, turn around, Oh, Lordie, pick a bale a day." Bolton identifies the first line as plain gibberish. And if you have a vested interest in perpetuating the myths, youll want to start corrupting your children young right from the cradle and thats how these rhymes were surely born. Ene, mene, ming, mang, Then there's choosing a completely alternative rhyme to choose which kid sits in the front/ gets to play first on the xbox etc. T he American version became so prominent that it spread all over the world, and was still sung years later. Hahaha.. Who does that Had to be a deep rooted odd fixation in the mind of the song writer'.. Atlanta Black Star is a narrative company. [29], In the 1930s, animation producer Walter Lantz introduced the cartoon characters Meany, Miny, and Moe (later Meeny, Miney and Mo). Ancient Celtic counting system or Victorian nonsense verse? It was meant to propagate the sense of superiority white children felt even after they lost the Civil War. Accuracy and availability may vary. Some versions use a racial epithet, which has made the rhyme controversial at times. The diverse origins of the first line Eenie, meenie, miney, moeare plausible but contested. The, "Jump down, turn around, pick a bale of cotton. In some Dutch versions Ene, mine, mike, maken.. Wash your hands afterwards. ^^Song Info: Toy-Box - Eenie, Meenie, Miney, MoImage/Song Mp3: https://www.mediafire.com/f. A version from Yorkshire is: Eeeny, meeny, miney, mo. The best known version of the rhyme is the one that is now widely derided as insulting, especially in the USA, where the middle two lines originated: Eena, meena, mina, mo, Catch a n*gger by the toe, If he hollers, let him go, Eena meena, mina, mo. Players: 3 Girls Age: 9-11. Following by different variations of if he squeals/screams/hollers and then let him go/make him pay/send him hum. But, it gets a little complicated because parts of the rhyme probably come from different places and times. The first line of a popular children's counting rhyme. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. According to Vox, the 19th century American version of the nursery rhyme was rooted in the slave trade. Continue with Recommended Cookies. In my search, I stumbled upon the book The Counting-Out Rhymes of Children: A Study of Folk-Lore by Henry Carrington Bolton. The link to the names of numerals in ancient languages is also likely. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe also known as Eena, meena, mina, mo is a popular counting rhyme and singing game. The songs meant something at the time they were created, and they have a different, and important meaning to our lives now: remembering a past that we should never forget. [12] 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. Shaftel explains that we usually attach a disclaimer to Bach and explain how his art was a product of his time. For example, you may have heard, "Eenie, meenie, miney, mo, catch a tiger by his toe," but the original version was undeniably racist: "Eenie, meenie, minie mo. I jumpd aboard the telegraph and trabbled down de ribber, Counting off has always been a way to group and identify things. Catch an nigger by the toe. We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. If he hollers, let him go, Seemingly innocent, the rhyme is not what it seems. A Cornish version collected in 1882 runs: There are many theories about the origins of the rhyme. Eenie, meenie, miney moe. You know, they're like these nonsense syllables that then sound like words that you recognize. You could rock, paper, scissors for it, or you could do the following ANNA KULBASHNY: Catch a tiger by the toe EMILE BEAUBIEN: If it hollers, let him go MARTIN: Every kid seems to know this rhyme, or at least a variation of it, including the kids you just heard - 11-year-old Cecilia Clemens and Anna Kulbashny, 10-year-old Emile Beaubien and Sarayu Mudiya, age 6. For instance, the songs may have provided information about the cruelty of slavery to Northerners in the 1800s. In the 1950s, a Dutch language historian proposed that the first line Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moecomes from anne manne miene mukke, the first line of an ancient heathen priest song in which the chanter supplicates the high priestess for a divine sign about who should live or die. While vaguely remembering a controversy surrounding the song, its sinister past left me at a loss of words when facing my children who were waiting for answers. Catch a tiger by the toe ", The black plaintiffs in that case sued the airline for discrimination because a flight attendant had used the rhyme while urging them to take their seats. In 2004, two African-American sisters filed a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines after a flight attendant tried to rush them into choosing a seat saying, Eenie, meenie, minie, mo, pick a seat, we gotta go.. I mean do people kind of sing it? B. Fitzgibbon, Words and music, "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo" Again, this is in no way a defense of those songs, a defense for keeping their original lyrics or absolving the audience members from their consumption of racist material. Of all of the phrases and idioms in the English language 'eeny, meenie, miny, mo' must be the one with the widest variety of spellings. Director Jokes Yanes Writers J. Bishop Jokes Yanes Stars Andres Dominguez Belkys Galvez David Scott Lago Catch a racist by the toe. Father, husband, dog person. Good Luck! The original lyrics: "It raind all night de day I left, De wedder it was dry, The sun so hot I froze to def.". If he hollers, let him go And we want to be aware of our racist roots," Shaftel said. or 'O, U, T spells out! Although it seems weird that a similar rhyme would emerge all over the world, researchers believe that it could have simply resulted from different children learning which sounds go well together. The version before this one was much more grim and ghastly. To make matters worse, that song became the basis for an offensive folk song in 1916 titled, "Nigger Love A Watermelon Ha! Is It Called Presidents Day Or Washingtons Birthday? Versions of the rhyme have existed since before 1820. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. You know them by heart, but you can do these little, like, switches and flips and variations in them. Then shop him to the FBI. But in that context, does the current edit make this nursery rhyme any less derogatory? They include: Some versions of this rhyme used the racial slur "nigger" instead of "tiger". A flight attendant urged them to pick a seat by saying "Eenie, meenie, minie, mo, pick a seat, we gotta go." Eeny meeny miny moe Catch me If you can dodo, yeah Eeny meeny miny moe Watch out If you can dodo, yeah Eeny meeny miny moe Catch me If Eeny Meeny Miny Moe Steph Moody can't take back Eeny, meeny, miny, moe Eeny, meeny, miny, moe My mind says let you go My mind says let you go But my heart says I don't know My heart All rights reserved. In the 1700s up to the early 1900s, variations of the Score were used in the UK and the US by fishermen needing to take stock of the days catch, shepherds and farmers accounting for their animals, and women keeping track of rows in knitting. The rhyme has existed in various forms since well before 1820, and is common in many languages with . In other musical instances, this is not the case. Catch a tiger by the - it has rhythm built into it. "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe"which can be spelled a number of waysis a children's counting-out rhyme, used to select a person in games such as tag, or for selecting various other things. Folklorists, too, went on the playgrounds to study what these kids were singing. Will you support Voxs explanatory journalism? Eeny meeny miney mo, Catch a tigger by the toe, If you ever let it go, Eeny meeny miney mo. Despite language differences, the first lines of each version are remarkably alike. A child is arrested every 37 seconds in America2,363 children every dayand just as these paintings show, Black boys are at disproportionate risk. Also, the word for 'one' in Welsh, Cornish, Irish and Breton is, respectively, 'un' (pronounced 'een'), 'ouyn', 'aon' and 'unan' - all of them sounding not unlike 'een' or 'eeny'. A little over a week ago, NPR had an illuminating and poignant report on the the racist beginnings of the ice cream truck song. The last line is often topped off with a short emphasized 'You are It!' Maticaire et matico, The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. Eenie, meenie, minie mo." An alternate version: "Catch a negro by his toe/ If he hollers make him pay/Twenty dollars every day." This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. [citation needed]. Eeny meeny miny mo. "It's become clear to scholars that blackface/ minstrels were really the North's only exposure for what was going in the South," Shaftel says, explaining that while these shows were racist and terrible, they were trying to portray some semblance of reality of what life was like in the South. Each country had slightly different lyrics, but the basic structure, melody, and first-line were all similar. Were not born racist; its something thats taught. The real lyrics, according to The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, are as follows: Eenie, meenie, miney moe However, the original words used in the song have far less benign implications. Added to that, as far back as the 19th century there have been variants of the rhyme which are so dissimilar to our current version as to be scarcely recognisable - 'Hana, mana, mona, mike' (from New York) and 'Eetern, feetern, peeny, pump' (from Scotland) and many of these now have local variants and words added from other languages. or "Daniel Boone was a man, he was a big man, but the bear was bigger so he ran like a nigger up a tree". On the Wikipedia page Talk: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, the editors of the rhymes Wiki page were discussing the issue: At school in North London 197278 we used the n***** version, without any ill intention; it was just part of the rhyme, mentioned one of the editors. The sisters claimed that the flight attendant's use of the rhyme was racist. (one version of several; they also chant the US variation above) France: Une, mine, mane, mo, Une, fine, fane, fo Maticaire et matico, A new intersectional publication, geared towards voices, values, and identities! On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. You might think that childrens nursery rhymes are about as innocent as it gets, but as with pretty much anything created after the rise of the concept of racism in the 1400s, thats not the case. This can be due to what The Paris Review refers to as Hobson-Jobson, when words that have the same sound are translated to fit the linguistics of the native speaker's language. The book was published in 1888 and thoroughly describes the authors research into various childrens counting-out rhymes that were popular at the time. You Cant Use These English Words In The UK, Understanding Black History: 10 Terms That Illuminate The Black Experience In The US, The Names Of Black Panther And Wakanda: Their Meaning And Significance. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. If he hollers, let him go. Une, fine, fane, fo This offensive variation was widely used until around the 1950s when kid-friendly variations that instead use words like tiger, tinker, and piggy became commonplace. The meaning: The protagonist of the song is an African-American slave who is portrayed as dumb and naive. [citation needed], In Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh (1995), the leading character and his three sisters are nicknamed Ina, Minnie, Mynah and Moor. Eggs, butter, cheese, bread, As late as the 1980s, though, children werent catching a tiger by the toe, but a n-word.. That being said, it's almost impossible to track down the true origin of "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo." Tell us about them in the comments! And there's versions in France(reciting poem with French dialect). For centuries, this has been a popular method to make a hard choice for both children and adults all over the world. Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe is a rhyme for choosing who's "It" in a game or to choose who goes first. Definitions by the largest Idiom Dictionary. There are considerable variations in the lyrics of the rhyme, including from the early twentieth century in the United States of America: During the Second World War, an AP dispatch from Atlanta, Georgia reported: "Atlanta children were heard reciting this wartime rhyme: A distinct version of the rhyme in the United Kingdom, collected in the 1950s & 1960s, is: There are many scenes in books, films, plays, cartoons and video games in which a variant of "Eeny meeny " is used by a character who is making a choice, either for serious or comic effect. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe is part of a large collection of Counting-out rhymes, used in playground games, since the early 19th century. "BasketBall, Watermelon, Cadillac cars, we aint as dumb as you think we..is". Sign up for writing inspiration in your email, Harness Your Moxie To Take This Word Of The Day Quiz, Getting Braggadocious: Top Word Trends On Dictionary.com, (one version of several; they also chant the US variation above), There isnt a clearcut explanation as to how these global variations came about and to provide one would require knowing definitively where. You can also contribute via. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. Please consider making a one-time contribution to Vox today. So then you stick words that you recognize into the nonsense syllables. Ene, tene, mone, mei, In the US, Bolton found no less than 8 different versions using the word n***** in the second line. There isnt any evidence to back up this theory, which basically means that a term used by African slaves was used by white children in a racist song mocking them. This, though the early 2000s, even, says Dr. Nel. Johnson's piece got us thinking about the songs like the ice cream truck song a seemingly innocuous folk song, nursery rhyme, or jingle that we may not have known were racist, and what we should do when we learn about their histories. But these songs, can teach us about our past. The meaning: . And no, subbing in monkeys and making the rhymes less deadly isnt innocent, says Kansas State University English professor Philip Nel. It was used in the chorus of Bert Fitzgibbon's 1906 song "Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo": Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo, Catch a nigger by his toe, If he won't work then let him go; Skidum, skidee, skidoo. Wer? "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe"which can be spelled a number of waysis a children's counting rhyme, used to select a person in games such as tag. And in some cases that becomes extremely problematic. Iona and Peter Opie (1951) quote the following version: This version was similar to that reported by Henry Carrington Bolton as the most common version among American schoolchildren in 1888. Eeny meeny miney mo, Catch a tiger by the toe, If he swears, let it go, Eeny meeny miney mo. This one, which includes the 'toe' and 'olla' from Kipling's version, is one of many variants of "counting out rhymes" collected by Bolton in 1888:[7]. There's an idea that it comes from slave selection or a description of whatwhite slave owners would do if they caught a runaway slave. However, the lyrics to this song were not originally about a tiger. Sometimes the child pointed to at the end of one count is the one selected - to be 'It' in a game of hide and seek, for example. But that decision raises even more questions: what kind of music are we censoring? But where does it come from? We change the songs and scrub them clean. I shut my eyes to hold my brefSusanna, dont you cry. And tell his mother what he's done. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. There's no doubt that the rhyme is older than the 19th century recorded versions, possibly very much older. ", "Catch a negro by his toe/ If he hollers make him pay/Twenty dollars every day. Wo? Weve co-opted and stolen so much of Black culture over the past 400 years that it can be hard to realize sometimes just how many aspects of American life are racist from everyday expressions, hair and clothing style, and even our food. "[4] "Tigger" is also used instead of "tiger" in some versions of the rhyme.[5][6]. You seem like the type To love them and leave them And disappear right after the song. Stick, stack, stone dead! Did we miss any tunes that need to be nixed? Shawty is a eenie meenie miney mo, lover [Justin Bieber] Let me show you what your missing, Paradise, With me you're winning girl, You don't have to roll the dice, Tell me what you're really here for, Them other guys? Check it out: England: In this theory, the words Eenie, meenie, miney, moeare thought come from the Celtic words for the numbers one, two, three, four.. Get the fascinating stories of your favorite words in your inbox. 'Eeny, meeny, miny, mo' is certainly a strange line, so does it mean anything and does curiosity about its origin lead us anywhere? Likewise, some believe the nursery rhyme is based on an ancient British counting system. [28], Rex Stout wrote a 1962 Nero Wolfe novella titled Eeny Meeny Murder Mo. The words: "Ol' massa's gone and I'll let him rest/They say all things are for the best/ But I'll never forget 'til the day I die". I'm gay you're gay he's gay she's. Reader support helps us keep our explainers free for all. Whenever I hear the music now, the antique voice laughing about niggers and watermelon fills my head," Johnson wrote. Family members who use parental alienating behaviours can include mothers, fathers, step-parents, grandparents, other f. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. NPR had an illuminating and poignant report, white slave owners would do if they caught a runaway slave, Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the initial ruling. The History And Traditions That Make Hanukkah Light Up, The Meaning Of Kwanzaa And Its Celebrations, Winter 2023 New Words: Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, Fall In Love With 14 Captivating Valentines Day Words, Rizz And 7 Other Slang Trends That Explain The Internet In 2023, Win With Qi And This List Of Our Best Scrabble Words, We Had ChatGPT Coin Nonsense PhrasesAnd Then We Defined Them, Surprise! Ene, fune, herke, berke, The more you know. It first began to be written down in the 19th century - the scholarly journal Notes and Queries published this in the February 1855 edition: "The following are used in the United States for the selection of a taggerEeny, meeny, moany, mite,Butter, lather, boney, strike,Hair, bit, frost, neck,Harrico, barrico, we, wo, wack". Eeny, meeny, miny, moe MARTIN: Is it fair to call it a song? On the Wikipedia page "Talk: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe", the editors of the rhyme's Wiki page were discussing the issue: "At school in North London 1972-78 we used the n***** version, without any ill intention; it was just part of the rhyme", mentioned one of the editors. intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, "eeny-meeny-miney-mo - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com", "Childhood nursery rhymes and other 'classic' songs you probably never knew were racist", "Missing text can contain the true message", "Jeremy Clarkson: I didn't mean to use N-word video| News | The Week UK", "Jeremy Clarkson 'begs forgiveness' over N-word footage | Media", "Primark pulls "shocking" and "racist" Walking Dead t-shirt from stores after Sheffield man's angry complaint", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eeny,_meeny,_miny,_moe&oldid=1141869865, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, A jocular use of a form of the rhyme by a, This page was last edited on 27 February 2023, at 07:39. 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