The more recent ollie for a successful jump in skateboarding is probably unconnected. Charles Wilson wrote: “When I was growing up in the American South we actually said, ‘All ye all ye outs in free’ when playing hide-and-seek (although we called it ‘hide-and-go-seek’)”. Various subscribers remember versions that suggest the first part of the catch was once something like “all of you”. And oxen may have come from an intermediate form out’s in free - other recorded versions are awk in, Oxford, and ocean. 'Olly olly oxen free (and variants: olly olly umphrey, olly olly ee, outtie outtie let's be free, olly olly oxen tree, all-y all-y all set free, olly olly in come free, ally alley ocean free, etc.) is a catchphrase used in children's games such as hide and seek, capture the flag, or kick the can to indicate that players who are hiding can come. Oral transmission has garbled this in fascinating ways, with all in, for example, being translated by a series of mishearings to the name Ollie (short for Oliver, once more common than it is now). One guess is that the original was something like “all in free” for “all who are out can come in free”, to indicate that the person who is “it” in the game of hide-and-seek has caught somebody to become the new “it”, and so everybody else can come out of hiding without the risk of being caught. That’s because they’ve been passed down orally from one generation to the next, with no adult intervention or correction. The one I’ve come across is ollie ollie oxen free, but that may not be the most common form.Ĭhildren’s sayings were hardly recorded until the 1950s, and they are very variable. There are dozens of different forms of it, known to children all over North America at various times. Help would be appreciated.Ī I’m not sure that there is a “correct” spelling of the phrase. Fuller, Cincinnati, USA: I am trying to find the etymology and correct spelling of the term Olly olly in-come-free, used in children’s games to signal that the game is over or that the main player has given up hope of winning. Idiomation was unable to located the phrase used in the game of hide-and-seek that was used to call hiders back to “home base” in either Froissart’s era or Pollux’s era.Q From Matt J. We also know that the game of hide-and-seek is nearly identical to the game described by the 2nd-century Greek writer Julius Pollux. What we do know is that French court historian and poet, Jean Froissart (1337 – 1405) wrote of having played hide-and-go-seek in England as well as in France. It may also be a corruption of “ allez, allez” which is a Norman addition to the English language from French and is pronounced “ all-ay, all-ay.” The word “ allez” in French, of course, means “ go.” The ensuing “ in kommen frei” was a phrase popular in Dutch/German New York and Pennsylvania and meant “ come in free.” In this case, “ Allez, allez, in kommon frie” may have morphed into a French-English hybrid: “ Allez, allez, come in free!” With minimal effort, it easily becomes: ollie, ollie, oxen free. Imagine how it sounds when excited children are running about, shouting this at the top of their lungs and it’s easy to see how it becomes this: aw-luh aw-luh owxin fry. When “ a lle, alle auch sind frei” is said in a normal speaking voice, phonetically it sounds somewhat like this: aw-luh aw-luh owhk zint fry. The most likely explanation for the phrase is that it is a corruption of the German “ Alle, alle auch sind frei” which, when translated, means “ Everyone, everyone also is free.” And so, errors in passing the sayings down from generation to generation is not unlike the misheard lyrics of popular songs over the decades. In Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, if a player shoots an enemy and then hides, the player is hunted down with the phrase “ Ollie, ollie, oxen free! Come out, come out wherever you are!”Īside from that, it’s hard to find published references to the phrase “ ollie, ollie, oxen free.”Ĭhildren’s sayings were hardly recorded until the 1950s, and even then, the sayings are very variable. In the video games, Halo: The Fall of Reach and Halo: First Strike, the phrase “ ollie, ollie, oxen free” is used a number of times to pass along information to other members of the team.
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