Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses

Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses
   Children's singing game, known throughout the English-speaking world, and with many continental analogues. Nowadays, the game tends to be one of the first taught to children by adults, rather than being learnt from other children, and is therefore considered babyish by school-age children. The first known published versions are from the 1880s, although an American forerunner (Ring a ring a rosie A bottle full of posie All the girls in our town Ring for little Josie) is reported from 1790.
   The belief that the rhyme originated with the Great *Plague is now almost universal, but has no evidence to support it and is almost certainly nonsense. Early writers on the Plague do not mention the rhyme or, indeed, sneezing as a symptom of the disease, and the rhyme only appears 200 years later. The earlier folklore collectors do not make the connection between the rhyme and the Plague, and the idea appears to date only from the 1960s, but is now so widely believed as to be unshakable.
   See also *sneezing.
   ■ Opie and Opie, 1985: 220-7; Gomme, 1898: ii. 108-11.

A Dictionary of English folklore. . 2014.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • ring-a-ring o' roses — 7 [ˌrɪŋ ə rɪŋ ə ˈrəʊzɪz] [ˌrɪŋ ə rɪŋ ə ˈroʊzɪz] (BrE) (NAmE ˌring around the ˈrosy ; ) noun …   Useful english dictionary

  • Ring a ring o' roses — Ring a ring o ros|es BrE Ring around the rosy AmE a children s singing game in which the children join hands and dance round in a circle singing: Ring a ring o roses/A pocket full of posies/A tishoo! A tishoo!/We all fall down. People believe it… …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • Ring a Ring o' Roses — Infobox Standard title=Ring a Ring o Roses comment= image size= caption=Musical variations of Ring a Ring o Roses , Alice Gomme, 1898. [Gomme, The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland , p. 108.] writer= composer=Traditional… …   Wikipedia

  • Ring a Ring o’ Roses — a traditional children’s song and game in which the players join hands and dance in a circle singing, then pretend to sneeze, and fall down on the last line. The words are: Ring a ring o’ roses, A pocket full of posies, A tishoo! A tishoo! We all …   Universalium

  • ring-a-ring o' roses — noun a children s singing game in which players hold hands and dance in a circle, falling down at the end of the song. Origin said to refer to the inflamed (‘rose coloured’) ring of buboes, symptomatic of the plague …   English new terms dictionary

  • ring around the rosy — ring a ring o roses 7 [ˌrɪŋ ə rɪŋ ə ˈrəʊzɪz] [ˌrɪŋ ə rɪŋ ə ˈroʊzɪz] (BrE) (NAmE ˌring around the ˈrosy ; ) …   Useful english dictionary

  • Ring-around-the-rosy — Ring a|round the ros|y →↑ring a ring o roses …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • Ring frei (сингл) — «Ring frei» Сингл …   Википедия

  • ring aring of roses, a pocketfull of posies, atishoo, atishoo, all fall down — Meaning Verse from a nursery rhyme. Origin From the playground rhyme. Often reported as referring to the Black Death (the bubonic plague in mediaeval Europe). The plausible sounding theory has it that the ring is the ring or sores around the… …   Meaning and origin of phrases

  • The Roses of Eyam — is a historical drama by Don Taylor, largely based on the events that happened in the Plague Village of Eyam, Derbyshire, between September 1665 and December 1666 [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/myths legends/england/derby/article 5.shtml… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”