Nonetheless, it's clear that "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo" was adapted through the years and revised to fit the era and place it was sung in. In some German versions Eena, tena, mona, mi. The version before this one was much more grim and ghastly. Ha! Vis, vos, vay. Bellow are the lyrics of one of the accepted modern versions of the "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" rhyme and also an older version. Une, fine, fane, fo First appearing in Oswald Rabbit cartoons, then in their own series. My story begins a few days ago while playing tag with my kids. ine mina mana mu meaning my sisters children in Sa Tomenese sounds very similar to the first line in the childrens rhyme. Every kid seems to know a version of Eeny Meeny Miny Mo. Here are some versions from English-speaking countries Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe Eeeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo England, English Language Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe USA, English Language Eenie Meenie Sicileeny USA, English Language She wrote about eeny meeny miny mo for The Paris Review. And his story raised awareness among his readers. Eenie, meenie, miney moe. Popularized in the 19th century, it was often sung by minstrels in blackface using the dialect of enslaved Africans, to boot. When it comes to these songs, Shaftel explains that children should be taught the modified versions because they can't grasp the nuances of race just yet and don't have multiple levels of understanding. Catch an nigger by the toe. Please consider making a one-time contribution to Vox today. "Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe" Lyrics Eeny, meeny, miny, moe Catch a tiger by the toe The version before this one was much more grim and ghastly. Bennett, P.R. This song was originally titled Mammys Little Baby Loves Shortnin Bread, and places Black women squarely in white womens kitchens. The real lyrics, according to The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, are as follows: Eenie, meenie, miney moe Catch an [N-word] by the toe If he hollers, let him go Eenie, meenie,. In my search, I stumbled upon the book The Counting-Out Rhymes of Children: A Study of Folk-Lore by Henry Carrington Bolton. RAPHEL: An earlier version of the rhyme that children recited on playgrounds did include a racial slur sometimes. It wasnt until a discussion about the rhyme with my American wife that I discovered any tiger version existed, adds another. They heard versions in Zimbabwe. The rhyme appears towards the end of 1949 British black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets. 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. ", 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. The use of the word nigger was censored for the American market, being replaced by sailor. Doo-dah!/ I come down dah wid my hat caved in Doo-dah! The traders would pinch or twist the slaves toe. Later, they can learn where the songs came from, and that lesson will be an important one. The Itis Despite language differences, the first lines of each version are remarkably alike. The rhyme has existed in various forms since well before 1820[1] and is common in many languages using similar-sounding nonsense syllables. 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". Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. I've opted for 'Eeny, meeny, miny, mo' but there are many others - 'Eenie, meenie, miney, moe', 'Eany, meany, miney, mo' and so on. The scholars Iona and Peter Opie noted that many variants have been recorded, some with additional words such as " O. U. T. spells out, And out goes she, In the middle of the deep blue sea"[3] or "My mother told me/says to pick the very best one, and that is Y-O-U/you are [not] it";[3] while another source cites "Out goes Y-O-U. I love writing about what I love. And it sounded a little like this. A child is arrested every 37 seconds in America2,363 children every dayand just as these paintings show, Black boys are at disproportionate risk. 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. Check it out: England: Eenie, meenie, minie mo." An alternate version: "Catch a negro by his toe/ If he hollers. I shut my eyes to hold my brefSusanna, dont you cry. Lets take a look at some of them. The song was written by both Kingston and Bieb read more justin bieber pop eenie meenie Add tags View all tags Play album Replace video Featured On My World 2.0 Justin Bieber 710,941 listeners And tell his mother what he's done. Thanks so much for talking with us, Adrienne. Harvard PhD student Adrienne Raphel looked into its origins, and tells NPR's Rachel Martin it's found on playgrounds around the world. In 2004, two African-American sisters sued Southwest Airlines for discrimination on the basis of the nursery rhyme. The first line in the version sung in Cornwall, England was Eeha, meena, mona, mite. The, "Jump down, turn around, pick a bale of cotton. We've all taken advantage of the quirky nursery rhyme, "Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe." But what does the ditty mean? You seem like the type to love 'em and leave 'em And disappear right after this song So give me the night to show you, hold you Don't leave me . The Eeny Meeny Miny Moe shirt with Negans iconic baseball bat wrapped with barbed wire was deemed racist by shoppers and was eventually removed from stock. But when you get money, your little bride Will surely find out where you hide, So there's the door and when I count four, Then out goes you. Endendino, en-den-di-no. Eenie Meenie by Sean Kingston & Justin Bieber song meaning, lyric interpretation, video and chart position . Osse bosse bakke disse, Eeny meeny miny mo. Catch a mouse by the toe; The second line in the American rhyme, Catch a tiger by the toe, has a clearer and more dismal ancestry that traces right back to the United States. RAPHEL: Oh, it's all over the world. 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. At NPR, Johnson struggled with similar questions when faced with whether or not to tell his children about the origins of the ice cream truck song. Wash your hands afterwards. And there's versions in France(reciting poem with French dialect). Many people conveniently forget parts of American history like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Japanese internment camps that dotted the American West during WWII, but the truth is, Asian Americans have never had it easy in the States. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. 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. The classic American version most are familiar with goes like this: "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo, catch a tiger by the toe, If he hollers, let him go, eeny, meeny, miny, mo." This, however, is a recent revision. Whenever I hear the music now, the antique voice laughing about niggers and watermelon fills my head," Johnson wrote. Eeena, meena, mina, mo. Not only that, but its lesser-known second verse uses the N-word and laughs about the death of African Americans. The original rhyme, though, was about 10 little n-words, not monkeys, and when they fell out of bed they died in one of the horrible ways only Black children perished at the time. Why do so many fairy tales contain a hero named Jack? Ha!" Reader support helps us keep our explainers free for all. If they squeal make them squeal some more. Children all over the world use a variation of this childhood chant, most often used, in America, to decide who will be it in a game like tag. Father, husband, dog person. "Iniminimanimo" is a 1999 song by Kim Kay. "Do I empower them with the history of our country, or encourage the youthful exuberance induced by the ice cream truck? That being said, it's almost impossible to track down the true origin of "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo." Childrens literature and culture helped promote the lie of Black animality by presenting African Americans as apes or monkeys, either via racist caricature or via monkey characters who behaved like they imagined African Americans behaved. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. But when you get money, your little bride Will surely find out where you hide, So there's the door and when I count four, Then out goes you. In 2005, the song made the news when a school in suburban Detroit incorporated "Pick a Bale of Cotton" in a choir performance. ^^Song Info: Toy-Box - Eenie, Meenie, Miney, MoImage/Song Mp3: https://www.mediafire.com/f. The song can be seen as glorifying and poking fun at slave conditions. What kind of music are we preserving? Millions turn to Vox to educate themselves, their family, and their friends about whats happening in the world around them, and to learn about things that spark their curiosity. And that then caused a lot of entomologists to do kind of back formations, and say, well, because it had this racial slur, we think it may have had all of these other, you know, African American origins and all of this stuff with it. Is It Called Presidents Day Or Washingtons Birthday? But where does it come from? Seemingly innocent, the rhyme is not what it seems. Right. In this case, we say the kids had the right idea to go after those tigers toes. You can replace "catch a tiger" with any word (catch a boy, catch girl, etc) or any animal, or when singing to baby you can say "catch a baby". Thus, instead of tiger, it said the n-word to describe what would happen if a white slave owner caught a runaway. RAPHEL: I think the take away is these words sound really good together. There is a similarity between the words of the phrase and some of the numerals in pre-English Celtic and Cumbrian languages; for example, the oral tradition of the English coastal town of Yarmouth voices 'one, two, three, four' as 'ina, mina, tethera, methera'. And she says you can trace the rhyme's origin way back to when shepherds used it to count hundreds of years ago. For Theodore Johnson III, who wrote the article, knowledge of that history ruined ice cream trucks for him. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Eena, meena, ming, mong, Hundreds signed a petition demanding to put the item back on sale, claiming Primarks decision was an act of panic.If Eeny Meeny Miny Moe is so horribly racist maybe we should stop children singing it in playgrounds or I should get arrested for using it to choose which socks Im wearing, said the petition's organizer. Put the baby on the po An unavoidable question arises: what do you do with these songs? As adults, we might be curious as to whether the words mean anything and what their origin might have been. Eenie, meenie, minie mo." An alternate version: "Catch a negro by his toe/ If he hollers make him pay/Twenty dollars every day." And you are [not] it. Children appear to have no such concerns. These songs, many of which are still sung today, aren't just uncomfortable because of their lyrics; most were used in minstrel/blackface performances in the past. [29], In the 1930s, animation producer Walter Lantz introduced the cartoon characters Meany, Miny, and Moe (later Meeny, Miney and Mo). The lyrics of the song include one about the ole massa gone away, and have been terrorizing Black children for centuries. Another is that it associates Asians with either poor hygiene or subservience. A flight attendant urged them to pick a seat by saying "Eenie, meenie, minie, mo, pick a seat, we gotta go." Maticaire et matico, [14] This may have helped popularise this version in the United Kingdom where it seems to have replaced all earlier versions until the late twentieth century. Nowadays weve got a vested interest in nurturing the opposite, so its probably time to retire these particular tunes. We change the songs and scrub them clean. Was? Is it originally American? But studying these songs within the proper context suggests the songs represent more than may appear at first listen. Its possible children tried all sorts of nonsensical sounds and rhythms until they found one they liked: Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moeand its variants just happened to win out most of the time because it was pleasant to hear and say, like most nursery rhymes. ), Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary, similar children's counting-out games in other languages, As for this thing, he held up the shuttlecock, contaminated, in his outstretched right [hand], this idiot tickler, the only thing it's good for is, Well, said Lord Galen in some dismay, I suppose we shall have to cast lots or play at, la bla nca trska panca, oj gdi Vno na kapitno, n piy, w piy, y zh xiomo zu fij, literally "cap cip cup flower bud, a horse ran and was pinched by the door", ni bni rs, kvnter fnter s, ni bni rjba, kvnter fnter ba, , , cap cip cup kembang kuncup, kuda lari kejepit pintu, entliczek pentliczek czerwony stoliczek na kogo wypadnie na tego bec, , , , , https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=eeny,_meeny,_miny,_moe&oldid=71429390, Requests for etymologies in English entries, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, A method of choosing between two or more people or things, used by. Catch an nigger by the toe. While most American kids know this rhyme by heart and can easily recite it during childrens games, versions of it are actually popular all over the globe. There's no doubt that the rhyme is older than the 19th century recorded versions, possibly very much older. Family members who use parental alienating behaviours can include mothers, fathers, step-parents, grandparents, other f. But it's really hard to - and the history of it is much more complicated than that because the sounds in this rhyme are really sticky. Furthermore, another theory describes how slave traders would pinch or pull a slave's toe before purchasing them (via An Injustice). The rhyme has existed in various forms since well before 1820, and is common in many languages with . 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. In this theory, the words Eenie, meenie, miney, moeare thought come from the Celtic words for the numbers one, two, three, four.. "Jimmy Crack Corn", one ofAbraham Lincoln's favorite songs, is one example Shaftel points out. The classic American version most are familiar with goes like this: "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo, catch a tiger by the toe, If he hollers, let him go, eeny, meeny, miny, mo." MARTIN: Poet Adrienne Raphel. The meaning: The protagonist of the song is an African-American slave who is portrayed as dumb and naive. The sisters claim was rejected both in court and in an appeal. Prior to the popular variation used today that involves catching tigers, a common American variant of the rhyme used a racist slur against Black people instead of the word. Unsurprisingly, the term was changed to tiger when the n-word rightly became taboo (via The Paris Review). Some experts claim that catch a n****** by the toe refers to a method of punishment by white owners to slaves who tried to run away. 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. This, though the early 2000s, even, says Dr. Nel. Bach's St. John Passion, for instance, is set to anti-semitic text. We don't always do this with American folk songs. Une, mine, mane, mo, Google Pay. Ene, mene, ming, mang, And then maybe your new eeny meeny miny mo variation will be the one that kids on the playgrounds for generations will be reciting. Its possible children tried all sorts of nonsensical sounds and rhythms until they found one they liked: Nevertheless, there are as many theories as to the origin of. You seem like the type To love them and leave them And disappear right after the song. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. To make matters worse, that song became the basis for an offensive folk song in 1916 titled, "Nigger Love A Watermelon Ha! This popular rhyme proves that, especially once you know children typically accompanied their singing by pressing the corners of their eyes up or down, then grabbing their knees. Nicki Minaj) Justin Bieber 4,179,003 A group of kids gets together to play a game of tag and nobody wants to be it. The children dont suddenly slip into chaos trying to decide who it is going to bethey possess a rhythmic selection procedure, parts of which have probably been around in some form for centuries. 0:00 / 1:18 Eeny Meeny Miny Moe | Nursery Rhyme With Lyrics | English Rhymes For Kids The Tiny Tots 93.5K subscribers Subscribe 205K views 8 years ago Watch 'Eeny Meeny Miny Moe', a classic. As children often do, my daughter suggested choosing whoever will be it by singing the famous rhyme as it is now very commonly sung. She's indecisive, she can't decide She keeps on looking from left to right Girl, come a bit closer, look in my eyes Searching is so wrong, I'm Mr. In the US, Bolton found no less than 8 different versions using the word n***** in the second line. "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. Please enter a valid email and try again. 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. If he hollers, let him go, What lies behind this variability is that throughout the 19th century the rhyme spread from different parts of the UK to every playground in the English-speaking world, but by word of mouth rather than on paper. As late as the 1980s, though, children weren't catching a "tiger" by the toe, but a "n-word." However, the original words used in the song have far less benign implications. The poem has many versions used in different regions, but the roots consistently make clear references to slavery and discrimination of Black people. J.S. Will you support Voxs explanatory journalism? This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Catch . Financial contributions from our readers are a critical part of supporting our resource-intensive work and help us keep our journalism free for all. I'm gay you're gay he's gay she's. In other musical instances, this is not the case. These were, Bolton adds, the most favorite versions with American children and found in almost every state. You probably sang something about a tiger, but the original lyrics go like this: "Eenie, meenie, minie mo/. I mean do people kind of sing it? When he's done, Wipe his bum. Prior to the popular variation used today that involves catching tigers, a common American variant of the rhyme used a racist slur against Black people instead of the word tiger. Story begins a few days ago while playing tag with my American wife that I any... Another is that it associates Asians with either poor hygiene or subservience add! Begins a few days ago while playing tag with my kids for talking with,... Became taboo ( via An Injustice ), mite recorded versions, possibly very much older right idea to after... Show, Black boys are at disproportionate risk that I discovered any tiger version existed, adds another seems know! I hear the music now, the rhyme is older than the century... 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