Sticks and Stones

For other uses, see Sticks and Stones (disambiguation).

"Sticks and Stones" is an English language children's rhyme. It persuades the child victim of name-calling to ignore the taunt, to refrain from physical retaliation, and to remain calm and good-natured.

First appearance

It is reported^[1] to have appeared in The Christian Recorder of March 1862, a publication of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, where it is presented as an "old adage" in this form:

Sticks and stones will break my bones
But words will never harm me.

The phrase also appeared in 1872, where it is presented as advice in Tappy's Chicks: and Other Links Between Nature and Human Nature, by Mrs. George Cupples.^[2] The version used in that work runs:

Sticks and stones may break my bones
But names will never hurt me.

Look up sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Sources

↑ Gary Martin. "The Phrase Finder". Retrieved September 22, 2012.
↑ Cupples, Mrs. George [Ann Jane Dunn Douglas] (1872). Tappy's Chicks: And Other Links Between Nature and Human Nature (1872). London: Strahan & Co. p. 78.

Nursery rhymes (list)

"A-Tisket, A-Tasket" "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" "Did You Ever See a Lassie?" "Hey Diddle Diddle" "Hickory Dickory Dock" "Hot Cross Buns" "Humpty Dumpty" "I'm a Little Teapot" "It's Raining, It's Pouring" "Jack and Jill" "Little Boy Blue" "Mary Had a Little Lamb" "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" "Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe" "Poor Mary" "Pop Goes the Weasel" "Pretty Little Dutch Girl" "Roses are Red" "Sticks and Stones" "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" "Rub-a-dub-dub"

Clapping	"A Sailor Went to Sea" "Down Down Baby" "Mary Mack" "Miss Susie" "Miss Lucy" "Pat-a-cake" "Pease Porridge Hot"

Counting	"Duck, duck, goose" "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" "One, Two, Three, Four, Five" "This Old Man" "Tinker, Tailor"

Finger- plays	"Five Little Monkeys" "Itsy Bitsy Spider" "Little Robin Redbreast" "Round and round the garden" "This Little Piggy"

Games	"London Bridge" "The Muffin Man" "Mulberry Bush" "Oranges and Lemons" "Ring a Ring o' Roses" "The Farmer in the Dell"

Lullabies	"Hush, Little Baby" "Rock-a-bye Baby"

Rounds	"Ding Dong Bell" "Frère Jacques" "Kookaburra" "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" "Scotland's Burning" "Three Blind Mice"

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