We’ve all done it. You’re standing in a circle, maybe trying to figure out who has to go first in tag or who gets the last slice of pizza. You point your finger, rhythmically chanting those nonsense syllables that every kid in the English-speaking world seems to know by heart. Eeny meeny miny moe. It feels innocent. It feels like a relic of childhood magic. But honestly, if you actually look into where these words came from, the "magic" starts to feel a lot more like a complicated, sometimes ugly, reflection of history.
Most people think it’s just gibberish. It isn't. Not entirely.
The rhyme is what folklorists call a "counting-out rhyme." Its purpose is to use the randomness of poetic meter to settle a dispute or make a choice. It’s basically a coin flip for people who don't have a nickel. However, the version you probably know—the one about catching a tiger by the toe—is actually a sanitized revision. The older versions, the ones that lived in the 19th and early 20th centuries, carried a much heavier, more controversial weight.
The Linguistic Roots: Is it Actually Ancient?
There is a theory, popularized by some historians, that the opening line isn't just nonsense. Some believe it’s a corruption of ancient British counting systems. Back in the day, shepherds in regions like Northern England and Scotland used Celtic-derived systems to count sheep. If you look at the "Anglo-Cymric" score, you find words like yan, tan, tethera, methera.
Could eeny meeny miny moe be a distant cousin of ina mena mona mite?
Maybe. It's a tempting idea. It gives the rhyme an air of Druidic mystery. But most modern linguists are skeptical. They argue that children are naturally prone to "counting-out" sounds because they like the percussive nature of plosive consonants. If you look at similar rhymes across Europe, you see the same pattern. In Denmark, they say Ene, mene, ming, mang. In Germany, it’s Ene, mene, miste.
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It’s a global human habit. We like to make noise while we point fingers.
The first time we see it in print in the United States was around 1855, but it was already everywhere. It didn't just appear out of nowhere. It traveled through oral tradition, which is why there are roughly a thousand different versions of the second line.
The Tiger in the Room: Addressing the Racial Slur
We have to talk about the "tiger." If you grew up after the 1950s, you likely caught a tiger by the toe. If the tiger hollered, you let him go. It's cute. It's colorful. It's also a replacement.
In the late 19th century, particularly in the American South and even in parts of Britain, the rhyme used a vicious racial slur instead of the word "tiger." This wasn't some underground version; it was the standard. It reflected the casual, systemic racism of the era. The rhyme was used to dehumanize, even in the context of play.
This history isn't just a "fun fact" for a trivia night. It has real-world consequences today. For instance, back in 2004, Southwest Airlines faced a lawsuit because a flight attended joked over the intercom, "Eeny meeny miny moe, please sit down it's time to go." Two African American passengers sued, arguing the rhyme’s racist history made the comment offensive. The court eventually ruled in favor of the airline, noting that most people today only know the "tiger" version, but the incident highlighted how deeply these linguistic roots can sting.
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Jeremy Paxman, a well-known British journalist, once noted that rhymes like these are "the fossils of our language." They preserve things we might otherwise want to forget.
Variations Around the World: Catching More Than Just Tigers
While Americans were catching tigers (or worse), other cultures were catching entirely different things. Folklorist Iona Opie, who spent her life studying the lore and language of schoolchildren, documented dozens of variations.
- In some versions, you catch a "chicken" by the toe.
- In others, it’s a "fellow."
- Some versions skip the catching entirely and go straight to: "My mother told me to pick the very best one."
That "My mother told me" bit is a later addition. It's a way for kids to extend the rhyme if they realize the "count" is going to land on someone they don't like. It's a cheat code. Kids are smart. They realize that if the rhyme is 16 beats long, you can predict the outcome. By adding "And you are not IT," or "O-U-T spells out," they manipulate the physics of the game to get the result they want.
This reveals a lot about human nature. Even when we pretend to leave things to fate, we usually try to rig the system.
The Psychology of Why It Sticks
Why do we still use eeny meeny miny moe when we could just use a random number generator on our phones?
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It’s tactile. It’s communal. There is a specific tension that builds as the finger moves from chest to chest. It builds a tiny bit of drama in a mundane moment. Psychologically, it also offloads the "burden of choice." If you're picking which friend gets to sit in the front seat, using the rhyme removes the blame from you. "Hey, don't get mad at me, the rhyme picked you."
It’s a social tool.
The rhythm is usually a trochaic tetrameter. That’s a fancy way of saying it goes stressed-unstressed, stressed-unstressed. It’s the same beat as "Double, double toil and trouble." It’s hypnotic. It’s easy for a three-year-old to memorize before they even know how to read.
What to Do With This Information
Knowing the history of eeny meeny miny moe doesn't mean you have to ban it from your house, but it does mean you should be aware of the weight words carry. Language isn't static. It evolves. The transition from a slur to a "tiger" was a conscious effort by society to scrub a piece of folk culture that had become toxic.
If you're a parent or a teacher, it's a great jumping-off point for talking about how stories change. It’s a lesson in "linguistic archaeology."
Practical Steps for Using Rhymes Responsibly:
- Acknowledge the evolution. If a kid asks where it came from, you don't have to give them the R-rated version, but you can explain that people used to say different things and we changed it to be kinder.
- Explore other cultures. Instead of the standard English version, try teaching the French Am stram gram or the Spanish Pito pito colorito. It expands a child's phonetic range.
- Watch for the "rigging." Observe how kids add extra lines to the end. It’s a fascinating look at early mathematical logic and social manipulation.
- Check your context. In professional settings, even "innocent" rhymes can carry baggage you aren't aware of. If you need to pick a volunteer in a corporate workshop, maybe stick to a digital spinner or drawing names from a hat.
Ultimately, eeny meeny miny moe is a survivor. It has outlasted empires and survived the transition from the Victorian era to the TikTok era. It’s a weird, rhythmic, slightly stained piece of our shared history. We use it because it’s there, because our parents used it, and because sometimes, you just need a simple way to decide who’s going to be "it."