"This Little Piggy" or "This Little Pig" is an
English-language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
nursery rhyme
A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes.
From t ...
and
fingerplay
Fingerplay, commonly seen in early childhood, is hand action or movement combined with singing or spoken-words to engage the child's interest. According to Erikson, many children develop autonomy and "want to learn and imitate the activities and ...
. It has a
Roud Folk Song Index
The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud (born 1949), a former librarian in the London ...
number of 19297.
Lyrics
![ThisLittlePig1912](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/ThisLittlePig1912.png)
One popular version is:
Fingerplay
![Pig roastbeef](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Pig_roastbeef.jpg)
The rhyme is usually counted out on an
infant
An infant or baby is the very young offspring of human beings. ''Infant'' (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'unable to speak' or 'speechless') is a formal or specialised synonym for the common term ''baby''. The terms may also be used to ...
or
toddler
A toddler is a child approximately 12 to 36 months old, though definitions vary. The toddler years are a time of great cognitive, emotional and social development. The word is derived from "to toddle", which means to walk unsteadily, like a child ...
's
toes
Toes are the digits (fingers) of the foot of a tetrapod. Animal species such as cats that walk on their toes are described as being ''digitigrade''. Humans, and other animals that walk on the soles of their feet, are described as being ''plant ...
, each line corresponding to a different
toe
Toes are the digits (fingers) of the foot of a tetrapod. Animal species such as cats that walk on their toes are described as being ''digitigrade''. Humans, and other animals that walk on the soles of their feet, are described as being ''plant ...
, usually starting with the
big toe
Toes are the digits (fingers) of the foot of a tetrapod. Animal species such as cats that walk on their toes are described as being ''digitigrade''. Humans, and other animals that walk on the soles of their feet, are described as being ''plant ...
and ending with the
little toe
Toes are the digits (fingers) of the foot of a tetrapod. Animal species such as cats that walk on their toes are described as being ''digitigrade''. Humans, and other animals that walk on the soles of their feet, are described as being ''plant ...
.
[ A foot tickle is added during the "Wee...all the way home" section of the last line. The rhyme can also be seen as a ]counting rhyme
A counting-out game or counting-out rhyme is a simple method of 'randomly' selecting a person from a group, often used by children for the purpose of playing another game. It usually requires no materials, and is achieved with spoken words or hand ...
, although the number of each toe (from one for the big toe to five for the little toe) is never stated.
Origins
In 1728, the first line of the rhyme appeared in a medley called "The Nurses Song". The first known full version was recorded in ''The Famous Tommy Thumb's Little Story-Book'', published in London about 1760. In this book, the rhyme goes:
This pig went to market,
That pig stayed home;
This pig had roast meat,
That pig had none;
This pig went to the barn's door,
And cried week, week for more.
The full rhyme continued to appear, with slight variations, in many late 18th- and early 19th-century collections. Until the mid-20th century, the lines referred to "little pigs".[
]
Reception
It was the eighth most popular nursery rhyme in a 2009 survey in the United Kingdom.
The rhyme was included in Beatrix Potter's illustrated book ''Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes
''Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes'' is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter, and published by Frederick Warne & Co. in December 1922. The book is a compilation of traditional English nursery rhymes such as "Goosey Goosey G ...
'' in 1922. The only known full set of her four original watercolour illustrations of the rhyme sold for £60,000 in 2012.
See also
* ''Five Little Pigs
''Five Little Pigs'' is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in May 1942 under the title of ''Murder in Retrospect'' and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in Janu ...
'', a novel by Agatha Christie that takes inspiration from the nursery rhyme
*
References
{{Authority control
Fictional pigs
Songs about pigs
English folk songs
English children's songs
Traditional children's songs
Finger plays
English nursery rhymes
Year of song unknown
Songwriter unknown
Pigs in literature