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Mike Oxwells
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30222
Tue, 18 May 04 04:37 AM
On a lot of American movies I hear actors saying something like
"Olly olly oxen freeze" - what are they saying and what does it mean?
Joined on
Tue, May 18 2004
Turkminestan
New Member
03
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mirapence
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30484
Thu, 20 May 04 10:22 PM
Hello Mike,
“Olly, Olly Oxen Free” is a chant used by children to call in all players at the end of a hide-and- seek game. The origin of this expression is not very clear, but some understand it as “Everybody all come free”. That's all I know.
Mirapence
Joined on
Mon, Mar 8 2004
California, U.S.A
Junior Member
77
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Guest,
5 yr 125 days ago
I understand the meaning to be "Come out, come out, wherever you are" ... at the end of the aforementuoned hude-and-seek game
Grammybear
Guest,
5 yr 34 days ago
I believe this game is very old and originated in Great Britain.
Olli Olli oxen free is really "All ye All ye walks in free" said very fast with a stong lower-class British accent. To an American ear it would sound like All e All e aux in free when said quickly.
With a lower-class British accent, the "w" gets dropped in "walks" as does the "y" in "ye." Try it a few times and you will see what I mean.
Ed
Guest,
4 yr 310 days ago
Where did olly, olly oxen free come from??
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mishadoc
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73476
Sat, 12 Feb 05 12:56 AM
The message originates from 1800 Scottish and is really:
Calling All Outs In Free. If you put your hands around your mouth and shout it, it comes out Olly Oxen in Free. In Chicago, in our games we would say Oley, Oley Ocean, in free free, which made even less sense. Hope that helps.
Dr. Michelle Wendy Hacker
Tampa, FL.
Joined on
Sat, Feb 12 2005
New Member
01
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Anonymous,
2 yr 182 days ago
what about olly olly in come free?
oh, and olly olly oxen free means that children are paying a game (maybe hide and seek), and the people who are hiding can come out.
Anonymous,
1 yr 157 days ago
This is a Cut/Paste from Wikipedia, The exact origin of the phrase is unknown, but etymologists suspect it is a childish corruption of the German "Alle, alle auch sind frei!", (literally, "Everyone, everyone also is free!"), which is purported to have been a cruel joke often played upon Holocaust victims by their jailers. At any particular time, a prisoner might be released, immediately upon which the phrase would be shouted. Any other prisoners who also left would be killed further down the road by Nazi soldiers. [citation needed] Gordon Leeman. WWII: The True Story. 1987. William Cartel. History of Germany. Revised and Expanded. 1815-1990. The etymology above is highly suspect, though ingenious, as the phrase was almost certainly in use long before WWII.[citation needed] Another theory is that it is a corruption of the phrase, "calling all the outs in free". It's a bastardization of the phrase "All the all the 'outs' in free". At least that's what we always yelled when we played. I never heard the oxen phrase until we played with some neighbor kids of our grandparents. Olly olly oxen makes absolutely no sense at all.
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