nyaa nyaa/ naa naa (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Ben Zimmer]

On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 11:54 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> My first encounter with either phrase was in a Peanuts cartoon of the
> late '50s. Linus tells the players something like, "The correct phrase
> is 'All, all who are out are in free!'!
>
> I'd revise that (too much education) to "All ye, all ye..." which was
> then shortened to "All ye, all ye out are in free!" and then "...All
> ye, all ye outs (are) in free!"

I recall the Peanuts strip a bit differently. This sounds right:

---
http://everything2.com/title/ollie+ollie+oxen+free
In an early Peanuts comic strip, an unfortunate Linus van Pelt
rendered this call as as "Ollie Ollie Olsen Free-O". This elicited a
great deal of mockery from Lucy, who corrected him with "All-ee,
all-ee, out are in free."
---

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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