What's the origin of "enie minie minie moe "?

Question

This phrase is often followed by a ryhm which is obviouslly now considered racist. I don't have to say it...where did it originate?

Answer 1

It's a playground rhyme for picking "it" and nobody really knows its origins. Although many stories exist about the "real" meaning of the first line, they are apparently just nonsense syllables. One theory posed by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas in their book, The Hiram Key, suggests that the words are the first numbers in the counting system of the pre-Celtic Britons.

The earliest known published versions in the English language date to 1855, one of which used the words eeny, meeny, moany, mite and the other hana, mana, mona, mike. Other versions have also appeared in Britain and America, as well as in several other European languages.

Answer 2

I fell to wondering about the origins of the Eeny Meeny Miney Moe counting rhyme, and I searched around and found the answer in a dead post.

It’s Scottish and very old.

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Eeny meeny miney mo

Inimicus animo is Latin for “enemy of the soul”.

Catch the ****** by the toe

“The ******” is really a reference to the devil. (Variants actually saying “the devil” are known.)

If he hollers let him go

If you grab his toe and he protests, he’s human, and you should let him go. The devil has a cloven hoof which will not feel pain if pinched.

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My source was on the British Phrases board in 2003, and signed himself Kai Lung. He was clearly quite right.

Answer 3

As I know this rhyme, it is followed by "catch a tiger by the toe"..........
How is that racist?
I don't even know another way of saying it, and I'm 38!

Answer 4

Gibberish...