Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The rhyme was first collected in Britain in the late 1940s. [2] Since teddy bears did not come into vogue until the twentieth century it is likely to be fairly recent in its current form, but Iona and Peter Opie suggest that it is probably a version of an older rhyme, "Round about there": [2]
The rhyme has existed in various forms since well before 1820 [1] and is common in many languages using similar-sounding nonsense syllables. Some versions use a racial slur, which has made the rhyme controversial at times. Since many similar counting-out rhymes existed earlier, it is difficult to know its exact origin.
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other. An example of the ABAB rhyming scheme, from "To Anthea, who may Command him Anything", by Robert Herrick:
The historian Henry Carrington Bolton suggested in his 1888 book Counting Out Rhymes of Children that the custom of counting out originated in the "superstitious practices of divination by lots." [1] Many such methods involve one person pointing at each participant in a circle of players while reciting a rhyme. A new person is pointed at as ...
Big house, little house, pig-sty, barn. During the divination, the child will ask a question and then count out a series of actions or objects by reciting the rhyme. The rhyme is repeated until the last of the series of objects or actions is reached. The last recited term or word is that which will come true.
[up to the count of n, which increases by 1 with each set of jumpers] Another rendition substitutes, "teddy bear" for "butterfly. This can be dated no earlier than the early 20th century, to the term of Theodore Roosevelt. [10] In another skipping rhyme, once the alphabet finishes, participants continue with numbers until skipper catches rope.
Pages in category "Counting-out rhymes" The following 10 pages are in this category, out of 10 total. This list may not reflect recent changes. ...
Yan Tan Tethera or yan-tan-tethera is a sheep-counting system traditionally used by shepherds in Northern England and some other parts of Britain. [1] The words are numbers taken from Brythonic Celtic languages such as Cumbric which had died out in most of Northern England by the sixth century, but they were commonly used for sheep counting and counting stitches in knitting until the ...