# Little boys are made of snips and snails and tails...what's a snip? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 24, 2019, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-boys-are-made-of-snips-and-snails-and-tails-whats-a-snip/845317 "2019-12-24T00:28:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2019, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-boys-are-made-of-snips-and-snails-and-tails-whats-a-snip/845317/1 "2019-12-24T00:28:48Z")
See subject query. Maybe I knew once when I learned it. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2019, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-boys-are-made-of-snips-and-snails-and-tails-whats-a-snip/845317/2 "2019-12-24T00:31:00Z")
> **[Snip « The Word Detective](http://www.word-detective.com/2008/03/snip/)** > > And the occasional turtle. Dear Word Detective: My goodness! Your site is just as bad (or good) as a dictionary. I start out to look up one thing and get sidetracked with all the other interesting things I find. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2019, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-boys-are-made-of-snips-and-snails-and-tails-whats-a-snip/845317/3 "2019-12-24T00:33:41Z")
Thnx. Three minutes… ---
**Author:** ![ALOHA\_HATER](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@ALOHA\_HATER](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ALOHA_HATER)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2019, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-boys-are-made-of-snips-and-snails-and-tails-whats-a-snip/845317/4 "2019-12-24T03:32:56Z")
The article mentioned, but only in passing, the possibility that it was originally “snips OF snails.” I think this is by far the most likely answer. It maintains the parallelism: boys are made of 1. snips of snails (amputated animal body part) and 2. puppy dog tails (amputated animal body part) while girls are made of 1. sugar (tasty food) and 2. spice (also tasty food) and, by the way, 3. everything nice (vague filler phrase that rhymes, maintains meter, and makes up for the unfortunate fact that sugar and spice are only one syllable.) The composer probably first thought: what’s the grossest thing? Answer: in a combination of violence and scatology, a mutilated bit of a dog, which aren’t considered clean animals, and in fact the bit which spends all its time right next to a butthole. Then they thought: how can I fill out this line? And ‘snips and snails’ kind of fit. But ‘snips and snails’ was not an otherwise familiar phrase, so in the transmission, people naturally assumed that a ‘snip’ was a noun. Hence the change. I think it’s also possible that a similar-sounding vernacular/foreign word was made into ‘snips’ by the telephone game of children. Plus, it’s possible that it was bowdlerized. Perhaps it was ‘shits and snails,’ who knows. (Shits and snails are fine go-tos as candidates for the the opposite of tasty food among the nonfrench, which would again maintain the parallelism.) ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2019, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-boys-are-made-of-snips-and-snails-and-tails-whats-a-snip/845317/5 "2019-12-24T10:04:45Z")
It was always ‘slugs and snails’ when I was a boy. Of course, it was common back in the day, for puppies tails to be cut off for various reasons. Apparently Southey wrote two other forgotten verses: \*What are young men made of? Sighs and Leers And crocodile tears That’s what young men are made of. What are young women made of? Ribbons and Laces And sweet pretty faces That’s what young women are made of.\* Enough to make any modern egalitarian cringe. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2019, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-boys-are-made-of-snips-and-snails-and-tails-whats-a-snip/845317/6 "2019-12-24T15:58:01Z")
There is also a version with “frogs and snails.” I seem to recall one of my first threads here on the Dope almost twenty years ago (wow) dogging up all the variations. [Ah, yes, here’s the thread from 2001.](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=64123) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2019, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-boys-are-made-of-snips-and-snails-and-tails-whats-a-snip/845317/7 "2019-12-24T16:05:14Z")
Heh, rereading that thread, I’m amused by the references to [alltheweb.com](http://alltheweb.com). Totally forgot about that search engine, but it was one where you can do a true exact match string search. Looks like there are a lot of variations on that first word. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2019, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-boys-are-made-of-snips-and-snails-and-tails-whats-a-snip/845317/8 "2019-12-24T16:14:58Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > It was always ‘slugs and snails’ when I was a boy. Where did you live when you were a boy? I lived in Upstate New York and I’ve never encountered slugs and snails before this. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2019, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-boys-are-made-of-snips-and-snails-and-tails-whats-a-snip/845317/9 "2019-12-24T16:16:59Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Where did you live when you were a boy? > > I lived in Upstate New York and I’ve never encountered slugs and snails before this. In the thread I linked to, it seems most of the respondents for “slugs and snails” are from the UK or Ireland (looks like it’s by far the dominant version there.) We uncovered the following versions, in order of popularity according to the alltheweb and altavista search engines at the time: “snips, snakes, frogs, slugs, rats, sticks, snaps, ships, nails, snits, worms, snipes.” The earliest recorded one seems to be “frogs and snails,” as **samclem** and a Ph.D. in Childrens Lit I emailed posit. Surprisingly, the next verifiable printed version seems to be “snaps and snails,” and then “snips and snails.” But this was in 2001; who knows what academic research on this important topic has uncovered since then. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2019, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-boys-are-made-of-snips-and-snails-and-tails-whats-a-snip/845317/10 "2019-12-24T16:24:04Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Where did you live when you were a boy? > > I lived in Upstate New York and I’ve never encountered slugs and snails before this. Ah, **bob++**'s profile says Worcestershire, UK, so that checks out with why “slugs and snails” would have been the version he’s familiar with. ---
**Author:** ![ALOHA\_HATER](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@ALOHA\_HATER](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ALOHA_HATER)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2019, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-boys-are-made-of-snips-and-snails-and-tails-whats-a-snip/845317/11 "2019-12-29T02:12:26Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > In the thread I linked to, it seems most of the respondents for “slugs and snails” are from the UK or Ireland (looks like it’s by far the dominant version there.) We uncovered the following versions, in order of popularity according to the alltheweb and altavista search engines at the time: “snips, snakes, frogs, slugs, rats, sticks, snaps, ships, nails, snits, worms, snipes.” The earliest recorded one seems to be “frogs and snails,” as **samclem** and a Ph.D. in Childrens Lit I emailed posit. Surprisingly, the next verifiable printed version seems to be “snaps and snails,” and then “snips and snails.” But this was in 2001; who knows what academic research on this important topic has uncovered since then. 🙂 I think the wide variation of, uh, variations which aren’t phonetically similar would point the needle a little further toward it being a bowdlerization. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2019, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-boys-are-made-of-snips-and-snails-and-tails-whats-a-snip/845317/12 "2019-12-29T02:58:37Z")
Apparently Americans do alter the rhyme at times, because someone online dug this up. > [@](#): > > What Folks Are Made Of (traditional) > –Alan Lomax > > What are little boys made of? > Piggins and pails and little puppy tails > That’s what little boys are made of Piggins? WTF? Wiktionary defines a piggin as > [@](#): > > (dialectal) A small pail, can or ladle with the handle on the side; a lading-can. In the colonial era, some buckets were made like a small barrel, but with one stave left extra long. This stave would be carved into a handle so the bucket could be used as an oversized scoop for scattering grain, slopping the hogs, etc. Forget snips. I want to know where piggins came from. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2019, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-boys-are-made-of-snips-and-snails-and-tails-whats-a-snip/845317/13 "2019-12-29T03:22:53Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Where did you live when you were a boy? > > I lived in Upstate New York and I’ve never encountered slugs and snails before this. Not in Utica, no. It’s more of an Albany expression. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2019, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-boys-are-made-of-snips-and-snails-and-tails-whats-a-snip/845317/14 "2019-12-29T05:18:50Z")
I recall reading (don’t recall where) that “snips” meant the odds and ends a little boy was apt to carry in his pockets… a bit of kite string, perhaps, a cracked marble, a found (“lucky”) penny, an interesting pebble, a broken whistle…all the stereotypical jetsam of a boy’s life. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2019, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-boys-are-made-of-snips-and-snails-and-tails-whats-a-snip/845317/15 "2019-12-29T12:30:16Z")
It’s always seemed to me that “puppy dogs tails” refers to a boy’s penis. I may be wrong, but it makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2019, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-boys-are-made-of-snips-and-snails-and-tails-whats-a-snip/845317/16 "2019-12-29T12:52:42Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > It’s always seemed to me that “puppy dogs tails” refers to a boy’s penis. I may be wrong, but it makes sense. For a rhyme that was probably coined in an era when small children frequently ran around naked, it would make sense to me too. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2019, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-boys-are-made-of-snips-and-snails-and-tails-whats-a-snip/845317/17 "2019-12-29T13:45:31Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > Not in Utica, no. It’s more of an Albany expression. I must say you steam a good snail.