The inquisitive journalist strikes again

[oloriel]

- However, now I'm curious.

What words of truce did you use when you were kids? As in, you were playing tag, and someone's shoelaces became undone - what would they say so the others wouldn't take advantage of that, but allow them to tie their laces again? Or someone found something they'd want everyone to see, so the game had to be stopped (a truce called) - what word would be used to stop the game, then?

Children in the North-west of England (and the Green Knight, hence the question) used barlay (or barley), apparently, which is of course a bastardized form of parlay.

We used "Spielstop" (meaning game-stop), fairly straight-forward.

So. What's your word of truce?

- - -


- Allerdings bin ich jetzt neugierig.

Was habt ihr als Kinder benutzt, um beim Spielen einen Waffenstillstand auszurufen? Wenn ihr zum Beispiel Fangen gespielt habt, und jemandem sind die Schnürsenkel aufgegangen, was hat derjenige dann gesagt, damit das Spiel unterbrochen wurde und die anderen seine Schwäche (oder sein Schnürsenkelzubinden) nicht ausnutzten? Oder wenn jemand etwas fand, das er unbedingt sofort allen zeigen musste, so dass das Spiel angehalten werden musste (ein Waffenstillstand halt) - womit hättet ihr das gemacht?

Im Nordwesten Englands haben die Kinder (und der Grüne Ritter, weswegen die Frage natürlich aufkommt) offenbar barlay (bzw. barley) gesagt, was natürlich eine Bastardform von parlay ist.

Wir haben "Spielstop" gesagt, ganz unkreativ.

Und ihr?


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Comments

[inkandalchemy.livejournal.com]

In tag, we generally just said "time out," but as that was often considered kind of a cop out which could be abused just to avoid getting tagged, a very firm "hang on" meant a game-wide pause for some reason or other.

If it was something like hide-and-seek, on the other hand, the code word for letting everyone know you were giving up as seeker was, "Ollyollyoxenfree." I'm not sure where the phrase came from, but I think it was intended as something you couldn't take back or pretend someone had misheard; too many cases of kids faking a give-up and then claiming to have 'found' people when they mistakenly emerged from their hidey holes. *laughs*

ollyollyoxenfree!

[vashachu.livejournal.com]

Also used "Time out." Ollyollyoxenfree was said when you returned to base in tag before the seeker found you. At least, that's what it meant to us.

Re: ollyollyoxenfree!

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

"Time out" is a lot like our "Spielstop"... clear and straightforward. But the ollyollyoxenfree is... really interesting. Heh. It sounds adorable.

[cowboy-r.livejournal.com]

Ollyollyoxenfree is actually a corruption of "all ye, all ye, outs in free," meaning if you were still out, you were free to come in without being tagged.

[inkandalchemy.livejournal.com]

Ahh, thank you! I'd always wondered about that.