Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents information about the children's phrase "Ollie Ollie oxen free" (also spelled "Olly Olly oxen free") and similar sayings that are yelled out while playing hide & seek (also known as "Hide & Go Seek") and other games.
This post also includes comments from several online sources that document some childhood memories of saying "Ollie Ollie oxen free" and similar phrases.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric and recreational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
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INFORMATION & COMMENTS ABOUT THE PHRASE "OLLIE OLLIE OXEN FREE" OR SIMILAR PHRASES
These online sources are given in no particular order.
Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.
Source #1
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hide-and-seek
"Hide-and-seek (sometimes known as hide-and-go-seek) is a popular children's game in which at least two players (usually at least three)[1] conceal themselves in a set environment, to be found by one or more seekers. The game is played by one chosen player (designated as being "it") counting to a predetermined number with eyes closed while the other players hide. After reaching this number, the player who is "it" calls "Ready or not, here I come!" or "Coming, ready or not!" and then attempts to locate all concealed players.[2]
The game can end in one of several ways. The most common way of ending is the player chosen as "it" locates all players; the player found first is the loser and is chosen to be "it" in the next game. The player found last is the winner. Another common variation has the seeker counting at "home base"; the hiders can either remain hidden or they can come out of hiding to race to home base; once they touch it, they are "safe" and cannot be tagged.
The game is an example of an oral tradition, as it is commonly passed by children.[3]
[…]
In some versions of the game, after the first hider is caught or if no other players can be found over a period of time, the seeker calls out a previously-agreed phrase (such as "Olly olly oxen free", "Come out, come out wherever you are" or "All in, All in, Everybody out there all in free") to signal the other hiders to return to base for the next round.[6]”…
-snip-
I added italics to highlight the saying "Olly Olly oxen free".
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Source #2
From https://idiomation.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/ollie-ollie-oxen-free/ Ollie, Ollie, Oxen Free,
Posted by Admin on March 7, 2011
"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. 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!”
Aside from that, it’s hard to find published references to the phrase “ollie, ollie, oxen free.”
Children’s sayings were hardly recorded until the 1950s, and even then, the sayings are very variable. That’s because they’ve been passed down orally from one generation to the next, with no adult intervention or correction. And so, errors in passing the sayings down from generation to generation is not unlike the misheard lyrics of popular songs over the decades.
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.”
When “alle, alle auch sind frei” is said in a normal speaking voice, phonetically it sounds somewhat like this: aw-luh aw-luh owhk zint fry. 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. With minimal effort, it easily becomes: ollie, ollie, oxen free.
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!”
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. 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.
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."
-snip-
Here are some comments from this article's discussion thread (with numbers added for referencing purposes only)
1. Kathy Calhoun, March 21, 2017
"We used this phrase in the 1950’s when playing hide and seek. Grandmother was from Germany"
Reply
2. Joe Livak,
"We used this phrase in East Oakland in the 1950s and none us the kids were of German extraction, but the explanation by Elyse makes the most sense. A lot of people my age (75) are fondly familiar with the phrase."
-snip-
"East Oakland" is probably in California.
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Reply
3. Pam, June 24, 2017
"I’m younger than Joe above (in my early 50’s) but we used the phrase “Ollie, Ollie, oxen, free!” to call in remaining hiders in hide and seek in Texas when I was a kid in the late 60’s and early 70’s. So it was alive and well back then. That said, I have not heard children use it since then. Is it still used today?"
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4. Nohboddy, August 5, 2017 at 9:15 am
"I’m 31 and I used it throughout my childhood in Gonzales, LA. It was a MUCH smaller town back then than it is now, but it shows that it was used at least by some through the 90’s. I learned it from my grandmother, though I’m not sure where she learned it from. I haven’t heard kids using it as of late either but I still use it when my 9 y/o son decides to hide away from us. If we keep using it around our kids/grand-kids then it’ll stay alive in at least some parts."
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"LA" = "Louisiana, USA"
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Reply
5. Shawndra, October 15, 2017 at 4:25 pm
"I’m 32 and used it in CO growing up as well!! My several-year-older siblings taught me, and in turn I taught my nieces and nephews, lol. Long live customization and idiomism!!"
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"CO" = "Colorado, USA"
Source #3
From http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-oll1.htm
..."One guess is that the original [phrase that "Ollie ollie oxen free" is based on] 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.
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). And oxen may have come from an intermediate form out’s in free — other recorded versions are awk in, Oxford, and ocean.
Various subscribers remember versions that suggest the first part of the catch was once something like “all of you”. 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’)”...
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Source #4
From https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=155234 Subject: Folklore: in come or oxen free?
[Pancocojams Editor's Note: These are selected comments from that discussion thread. That thread is still open for comments.]
1. -Bettynh. 11 Aug 14 - 02:28 PM
"When I was growing up (very close to Boston, Mass. in the 1950s) my mom would call us home from playing by singing out
"Allee allee in come free"
Thirty years later and thirty miles away, I was informed by my kids that the chant should be
"Allee allee oxen free"
That never felt right to me. What do cattle have to do with this? Anyway, I just called them by name. But now I'm wondering: was the difference location? or progression of time (it's hard to imagine a sensible call to become nonsensical but..)? I can't remember if other mothers called their kids in that way when I was young. I do think I've heard the "oxen" variation elsewhere (on TV or in a movie?)."
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2. Q (Frank Staplin), 11 Aug 14 - 02:51 PM
"Allee, allee, outs in free.
From a hiding game; all those kids who hid and remained undiscovered could come home, as a new kid had been caught/found and would have to search for a replacement (or the game was over).
I remember playing the game in the 1930s.
So, do you know what I'm talking about here? What variation did your family use?"
-snip-
Pancocojams Editor's Note: I was a member of Mudcat Discussion Forum for a number of years. If I remember correctly, Q (Frank Staplin) grew up in the United States and later moved to Canada. Most of the commenters (posters) in this discussion thread who gave geographical locations are from England.
3.
"i heard ox in..used to call people in from a game of tag etc."
4.
"When I think of it, in my (late '40's) childhood, the end of a hiding game was always announced with the call "All in! All in! The game is all up!" sung out in a kind of lilt."
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5. GUEST, topsie, 11 Aug 14 - 03:32 PM
"In Somerset in the 1950s "All in ..." was the call to gather players together before starting a game - children would link arms and call "All in who wants to play 'The Big Ship Sails' (or 'The Farmer's in his Den' or whatever game it was going to be)". When enough payers had joined the line the game would start.
I can't remember a call for ending a game."
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6.
"Somerset in the 1960s it was definitely "oxen".
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7. Steve Gardham, 11 Aug 14 - 04:23 PM
"1950s Hull Yorkshire.
'All-ee, all-ee in' to gather participants together for whatever reason. Any hide and seek game ranging over a fair distance down back streets, particularly for re-alley-o (Relievo) but Block as well.
I don't remember it being used in long-rope skipping as there was usually a rhyme or chant to call everyone in to this. 'All in together, girls, this fine weather, girls' etc."
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8. GUEST,leeneia, 12 Aug 14 - 02:46 AM
"All-ee, all-ee in free
-snip-
Chicagoland= Chicago, Illinois ("Chicagoland" isn't a standard nickname for that United States city.)
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9. clueless don, 12 Aug 14 - 08:49 AM
"Washington DC, in the 1950s, playing Hide and Seek (not Hide and Go Seek.) If a hider was able to get back to base without being caught by the seeker, he/she could holler "Free", and would be free for the rest of the game. On the other hand, he/she could holler "Olly Olly Oxen Free", which meant that not only was he/she free, but all of the other hiders were also free - in other words, the seeker had failed. I believe it was sometimes considered mean to yell "Olly Olly Oxen Free", since it didn't give the seeker a chance to find one of the other hiders."
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10.Don Firth, 12 Aug 14 - 01:52 PM
"Folk process in action. Oftentimes words get misheard and it's amazing what they can turn into sometimes.
I remember back in the 1930s (when the Big Bang occurred, I was the guy who yelled, "What the hell was THAT!??"), kids in my neighborhood played games like hide-and=seek and kick-the-can a lot, and from time to time the call went out, "Ollie Ollie oxen free!"
Somebody, a grown up maybe, pointed out that they had always called "All ye, all ye, outs in free!" Made sense to me, but there was quite a dispute about it among the kids. Never settled, but no matter...."
-snip-
This is how this comment was written in that discussion thread.
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11. Steve Gardham, 12 Aug 14 - 03:52 PM
"When we shouted 'allee allee in' I presumed we were simply shouting 'All in' with the customary y added on the end as in mate>matey, dog>doggy etc.
These threads are both valuable and interesting as short phrases and calls like this often went unrecorded when the collectors were writing down the rhymes and games. 'Calling out' is something I haven't heard in 50 years. When our houses were packed together like sardines and we all lived on top of each other, if we wanted to ask a friend if he was coming out to play we would stand at the back gate and shout 'Yow, (name)!'. A frequent response from a mother would be, 'He's having his tea. He'll be out after.' To attract the attention of a friend in the distance we would yodel 'Ee-yow-oo!. Crescendo on the last syllable."
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12. GUEST,Blandiver, 13 Aug 14 - 04:06 PM
"All in, all in, Mother Goose is calling!
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13. Mysha, 14 Aug 14 - 12:44 PM
"Hi Don,
Ah, earlier times. Yet, "All ye, all ye, outs in free!" probably isn't the original either. The heralds cry is: "Oyez, oyez", which means "Hear ye, hear ye." It would seem to me that that call for attention is what is used here. (And that cry has other forms still.)
I'm also not sure of the "outs in free" bit, but if English ever used the verb "syn", rather than "to be", it must have been quite a while back. Still, "All syn free" has a better ring than the unusual "outs"; I've never heard of them actually being called "outs" except for this one cry…."
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