Sticks and Stones

"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 may break my bones, but words will never hurt 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.

It may be derived from a verse found in the Bible in Psalm 42:10.

Also throughout the web there are different essays about why each statement is true or false

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

Sources

  1. Gary Martin. "The Phrase Finder". Retrieved September 22, 2012.
  2. 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.
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