Nursery Rhyme Query

[Sam Clements]

>From the archives:

Date:         Mon, 14 Mar 2005 14:51:22 -0800
From:         Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Re: Swats was RE: adjective "Christian"


OED has "paddywhack," as "a severe beating, a violent blow" from an English
dial. source as recent as 1898.  "Paddywhack" was another of my
grandmother's words, from NYC about 1895 or a little later. It must be
significantly older than that in American use.

As I heard it, it was a punitive swat with the hand on a child's rear end,
certainly not a "severe beating" or "violent blow."

And certainly its use was at least influenced by "paddle," if not descended
directly from (unattested?) "paddle whack."

OED also instances the song "This Old Man" from the 1920s.  Neither
grandparent was familiar with this when I brought it home from school about
1958.



----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Shapiro" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Monday, May 02, 2005 3:40 PM
Subject: Nursery Rhyme Query


> Nigel Rees has the following query on his "Quote ... Unquote" website:
>
> Has anyone discussed the origins and date of this nursery rhyme (oddly the
> Opies ignore it): This old man, he played one / He played knick-knack on
> my thumb / Knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone / This old man came
> rolling home ... ?
>
> Can Barry or anyone else supply any information on this one?
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
> Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
>  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
> Yale Law School                             forthcoming
> e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>