Eeny, meeny, miny, moe facts for kids

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe is a fun counting rhyme that kids often use to pick someone in games like tag. It's one of many similar rhymes where the person who is pointed to on the very last sound of the rhyme is either chosen or "counted out." This rhyme has been around for a long time, even before 1820, and you can find it in many languages with similar-sounding silly words.

What the Rhyme Says Now

A very common way to say the rhyme today is:

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,

Catch a tiger by the toe.

If he hollers, let him go,

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.

There are lots of different ways people say this rhyme. For example, instead of "tiger," some might say "piggy," "tinker," or "tigger." The word "hollers" (which means shouts) can also be changed to "screams," "wiggles," or "squeals."

Sometimes, extra lines are added at the end to make the choosing process longer or to make it seem less planned. For example:

My mother told me/says to pick the very best one, and that is Y-O-U

Or another way:

O-U-T spells out, you are not it.

Pig snout you are out. (Kiwis only)

Out goes Y-O-U.

Sometimes, lines from other rhymes, like 'Ip dip', are added:

Not because you're dirty,

Not because you're clean,

Just because you kissed a boy/girl behind the magazine.

Where the Rhyme Came From

It's hard to know exactly where "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" came from because many similar counting rhymes existed even earlier.

Early Records

The first time a rhyme like this was written down was around 1815. Children in New York City were heard saying:

Hana, man, mona, mike;

Barcelona, bona, strike;

Hare, ware, frown, vanac;

Harrico, warico, we wo, wac.

A researcher named Henry Carrington Bolton found the "Hana, man" rhyme in the US, Ireland, and Scotland in the 1880s. He also found a similar rhyme in German:

Ene, tene, mone, mei,

Pastor, lone, bone, strei,

Ene, fune, herke, berke,

Wer? Wie? Wo? Was?

Other Old Versions

Different versions of this rhyme, often starting with silly counting words, have been collected since the 1820s. Here's a Scottish one:

Hickery Pickery, pease scon

Where will this young man gang?

He'll go east, he'll go west,

he'll go to the crow's nest.

Hickery Pickery, Hickery Pickery

Another version that sounds more like the one we know, even including "toe" and "olla," is:

Eenie, Meenie, Tipsy, toe;

Olla bolla Domino,

Okka, Pokka dominocha,

Hy! Pon! Tush!

This was one of many counting-out rhymes that Bolton collected in 1888.

A version from Cornwall (a part of England) collected in 1882 goes like this:

Ena, mena, mona, mite,

Bascalora, bora, bite,

Hugga, bucca, bau,

Eggs, butter, cheese, bread.

Stick, stock, stone dead – OUT.

Different Ideas About Its Start

One idea is that the rhyme comes from old English or Welsh counting systems. It's similar to an old shepherd's count called "Yan Tan Tethera" or the Cornish "Eena, mea, mona, mite."

Another idea is that British people who returned from India brought back a simple, rhyming version of an Indian children's rhyme. This rhyme was used in a game similar to carom billiards:

ubi eni mana bou,

baji neki baji thou,

elim tilim latim gou.

The rhyme also inspired a song called "Eena Meena Deeka" in the 1957 Bollywood movie Aasha.

Some people think it might have come from a Swahili poem that enslaved Africans brought to the Americas: Iino ya mmiini maiini mo.

Most likely, the rhyme comes from a very old, possibly Old Saxon (an old German language) rhyme used for telling the future. This idea was shown in 1957 by a Dutch language expert, Dr. Jan Naarding. He found a version of the rhyme in a dictionary from 1948 that was very close to a much older, possibly even ancient, original. This version was recorded in 1904 in a place called Goor in the Netherlands:

Anne manne miene mukke,

Ikke tikke takke tukke,

Eere vrouwe grieze knech,

Ikke wikke wakke weg.

Naarding believed this rhyme was originally a "heathen priest song." He thought it was a prayer to a goddess for a sign that would help decide important things, even life or death. The first lines can be translated as "foremother of mankind, give me a sign, I take the cut off pieces of a branch (= the rune wands)." This idea was looked at again and expanded in 2016.

See also

In Spanish: Pito, pito, gorgorito para niños