# "Catch a ??? by the toe." A survey. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 11, 2004, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catch-a-by-the-toe-a-survey/228549 "2004-02-11T00:28:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![curly\_chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ba0ec/32.png) [@curly\_chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curly_chick)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catch-a-by-the-toe-a-survey/228549/121 "2004-02-12T15:40:00Z")
Nigger - I am 35 and I spent the years you would use that rhyme in the North West of England. Like other people who grew up in an entirely white place, I never knew what the word meant. When I was a kid, the racist term for black people was nig-nog, and I only knew that from the telly. By the time I moved to Ireland I was past the age when you played tig, or whatever you need the rhyme for, but I heard my younger brother and his Irish kiddiwink playmates using the word tinker instead, as you say **Iteki**. Now as I think about it, that was far more racist to us, because we all \*knew \* what a tinker was in rural Ireland, twenty odd years ago, and they were despised, by and large, completely and utterly based on a negative racist stereotype. But a nigger? No concept of what one might be, so the word had no resonance. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catch-a-by-the-toe-a-survey/228549/122 "2004-02-12T15:58:09Z")
“Nigger”. Age 43 raised in West Bend, Wisconsin. Nobody ever corrected us either. I expicitly remember saying it in front of teachers in grade school. Until in 3rd grade the teacher rounded us all up an announced that the principal didn’t want anyone using that word any more. We didn’t even know it was a bad word, to tell you the truth. Nobody ever told us. There weren’t any black kids in school. In fact, I don’t believe there were any blacks living in the entire town. The first time I saw a black person in the flesh I was in 6th grade and at summer camp. My childhood there was much like growing up on “Leave it to Beaver”, so that should explain a lot. Very white, middle class, conservative town. ---
**Author:** ![PbZep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/58f4c7/32.png) [@PbZep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PbZep)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catch-a-by-the-toe-a-survey/228549/123 "2004-02-12T17:03:35Z")
Heard both the racial slur and “lion” (maybe my memory is tainted since everyone else remembers “tiger”). I’m 40 and grew up in a Detroit suburb. We also added, “and my mother told me to choose this very best one” to the end. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catch-a-by-the-toe-a-survey/228549/124 "2004-02-12T17:22:26Z")
Me: ‘nigger’ - 36, England. My kids: ‘Catch a fish upon his toe’ (which I realise doesn’t make perfect sense, but it’s what they happened to pick up at school) aged 5 and 7 (England) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catch-a-by-the-toe-a-survey/228549/125 "2004-02-12T18:50:59Z")
> [@Mehitabel](#): > > Also, in my mostly-white Irish and Italian enclave we knew that white folks were and are the minority in the Bronx, so it was all sort of turned around anyway. I’m trying to understand a place where everybody you know or see is white and utterly failing 😉 North and east of Parkchester, up to Throgs Neck and Pelham Bay Park, anytime before about 1970. It was a pretty tribal area, then, and a no-go zone for blacks, enforced by teen gangs and to some extent the Mafia. My own neighborhood is completely mixed, now. Of course, my Irish-American grandmother wasn’t entirely convinced that Italians were really white people up until the day she died. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catch-a-by-the-toe-a-survey/228549/126 "2004-02-12T19:04:59Z")
Me: “Tiger.” 26, from Minnesota I also heard the n-word version, but it wasn’t used much. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catch-a-by-the-toe-a-survey/228549/127 "2004-02-12T19:14:38Z")
> [@Tikki](#): > > By the way, ever since I was a kid, I’ve associated the Jeopardy game show music with this rhyme, with just a couple minor additions. Come on, sing with me: > > Eeney, meenie, miney, moe > Catch a monkey by his little toe > And if he hollers, let him go > Let the poor old monkey go > > (Repeat a dozen or so times) The Final Jeopardy music is “I’m a Little Teapot”. > [@](#): > > I’m a little teapot short and stout. > Here is my handle and here’s my spout. > When I get all steamed up, hear me shout. > Tip me over and pour me out. (boom boom) ---
**Author:** ![AmericanMaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@AmericanMaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AmericanMaid)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catch-a-by-the-toe-a-survey/228549/128 "2004-02-12T21:28:47Z")
Tiger. 27 years old. Grew up in the Boston area. ---
**Author:** ![monica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@monica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monica)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catch-a-by-the-toe-a-survey/228549/129 "2004-02-12T23:26:10Z")
I lived in Maryland until I was 5, and now live in Virginia (I’m 17). I always heard “tiger.” ---
**Author:** ![Buran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Buran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buran)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catch-a-by-the-toe-a-survey/228549/130 "2004-02-12T23:32:29Z")
I always heard it as “tiger”. I see the other person from Northen Ireland used the word “nigger” which seems bizarre. I’m 25 btw. As for the “entirely white” neighbourhood, of my local area of roughly several thousand people there was a grand total of two chinese families and one Arab. No black people at all. Also 99.99% religiously homogenous as well. ---
**Author:** ![CairaJade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f04885/32.png) [@CairaJade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairaJade)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catch-a-by-the-toe-a-survey/228549/131 "2004-02-12T23:39:05Z")
Tiger. 25. Florida. Didn’t even know it was changed from the n-word. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense no match what you’re catching by the toe. _shrug_ ---
**Author:** ![LucysLogic101](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19b73/32.png) [@LucysLogic101](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LucysLogic101)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catch-a-by-the-toe-a-survey/228549/132 "2004-02-13T00:58:07Z")
> [@Noelq](#): > > “Tiger” was known, but we mainly used “one-potato…”, because you could easily predict where “'eenie-meenie” was going to land. > > Male, 36, Northern California. which is why we would draw “eenie-meenie” out with “my mother said to pick the very best one and you are it so i pick you and everyone else is not picked at all . . .” ad nauseum until you calculate finally landing on the person you want picked/excluded. tiger, 18, s. east PA ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catch-a-by-the-toe-a-survey/228549/133 "2004-02-13T01:08:39Z")
“Tiger”, usually, but “nigger” very occasionally. I’m sure I heard “tiger” first, but “nigger” fairly early as well. 36, raised all over the place - NY, Boston, Detroit, and San Francisco Bay Area most prominently before age 18. Mostly SF Bay Area since. - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catch-a-by-the-toe-a-survey/228549/134 "2004-02-13T02:45:24Z")
Unfortunately the “N” -word Multiple childhood locations but probably the first time was in a Washington DC suburb in Virginia. circa late 60’s ---
**Author:** ![RNWebner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@RNWebner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RNWebner)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catch-a-by-the-toe-a-survey/228549/135 "2004-02-13T03:23:19Z")
“tiger” 17, columbus ohio ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catch-a-by-the-toe-a-survey/228549/136 "2004-02-13T04:06:09Z")
Always used Tiger. Never knew there was any other word to use till I saw _Pukp Fiction_ and he used nigger. And after I saw that, I assumed that it had to be one of the two, monkey and rabbit? That’s just plain silly! Of course, we usually used “one potato, two potato”, or “bubble-gum bubble-gum in a dish” ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catch-a-by-the-toe-a-survey/228549/137 "2004-02-13T06:22:48Z")
Oh, almost forgot (well, I did forget, but then eventually un-forgot.) 21, vermont. ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catch-a-by-the-toe-a-survey/228549/138 "2004-02-13T07:12:30Z")
Rooster originally. That came from my mom, who is from Cleveland Then tiger, learned from kids at school. Then the bad one, learned from some other kids. I grew up in northeast Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catch-a-by-the-toe-a-survey/228549/139 "2004-02-13T07:30:38Z")
“Nigger”, 40, Auckland New Zealand. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catch-a-by-the-toe-a-survey/228549/140 "2004-02-13T07:37:29Z")
40, Radford, VA, tiger. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catch-a-by-the-toe-a-survey/228549.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catch-a-by-the-toe-a-survey/228549.md?page=8)