# Sneezing and the plague...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneezing-and-the-plague/84108>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [September 27, 2001, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneezing-and-the-plague/84108 "2001-09-27T14:31:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![rob\_s](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@rob\_s](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rob_s)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2001, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneezing-and-the-plague/84108/1 "2001-09-27T14:31:27Z")

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Re. [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mgesundheit.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mgesundheit.html)

I always understood the nursery rhyme “Ring o’ roses” to be about the Plague…

“Ring-a-ring o’ roses,  
A pocket full of posies,  
A-tishoo! A-tishoo!  
We all fall down.”

The “roses” were s’posed to refer to the boils caused by the Black Death; the sweet-smelling “posies” either blocked the disease in the air or simply masked the smell of lots of dead people; “a-tisho” because if you had the Plague you used to sneeze lots; and “all fall down” is kinda obvious…

One site

[http://www.gbalc.org/MotherGooseSociety/rhymes/ringaround.html](http://www.gbalc.org/MotherGooseSociety/rhymes/ringaround.html)

is sceptical about this link - does anyone else know whether this rhyme did indeed start with the Balck Death?  
Rob S.

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**Author:** ![rob\_s](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@rob\_s](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rob_s)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2001, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneezing-and-the-plague/84108/2 "2001-09-27T14:37:36Z")

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oops - wrong forum… :wally

Could a nice mod please put this where it should be?

Cheers,

Rob S.

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**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2001, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneezing-and-the-plague/84108/3 "2001-09-27T16:30:08Z")

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The Snopes site also comes down on the skeptical side of this children’s nursery rhyme having anything to do with the Plauge. Most compelling is that the rhyme didn’t originate until hundreds of years after the Plauge happened, and appears to have had dozens of different regional variations, most of which cannot be linked even tenously to the plauge. I think it’s just a case of people trying to force links on things which have nothing to do with each other.

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2001, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneezing-and-the-plague/84108/4 "2001-09-27T23:19:58Z")

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I’ll move it for you.

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**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2001, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sneezing-and-the-plague/84108/5 "2001-09-28T12:02:21Z")

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The snopes site is more than skeptical, it’s pretty much certain that “Ring around the Rosy” has nothing to do with the plague.

Here’s a link to Snopes: [Ring around the rosie](http://www.snopes.com/language/literary/rosie.htm)