Sticks and Stones

"Sticks and Stones" is an English-language children's rhyme. The rhyme is used as a defense against name-calling and verbal bullying, intended to increase resiliency, avoid physical retaliation, and/or to remain calm and indifferent. The full rhyme is usually a variant of: Sticks and stones may break my bones But words shall never hurt me. The first three words of the rhyme are an example of an irreversible binomial. Earliest appearances Alexander William Kinglake in his Eothen (written 1830, published in London, John Ollivier, 1844) used "golden sticks and stones". An article by F.R. Horner in Liverpool's Northern Times on July 23, 1857, included the phrase (as quoted text): Sticks and stones (says the schoolboy’s rhyme) may break men’s bones, but bad names will not hurt me. An article in The Coleraine Chronicle and North of Ireland Advertiser on January 18, 1862 included the phrase (also as quoted text):Sticks and stones break one’s bones, but names will never hurt one.It appeared in The Christian Recorder, a publication of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, on March 22, 1862, where it was presented as an "old adage" in this form:Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me.In a speech given by E.H. Heywood in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 16, 1862, published in The Liberator on January 2, 1863, the speaker quotes a "little Irish girl" who "dissolved the quarrel" of a group of children who were about to come to blows by saying:Sticks and stones may break my bones,