Truce terms
Encyclopedia
A truce term is a word
or short phrase
accepted within a community of children as an effective way of calling for a temporary respite or truce during a game or activity. Common examples in English speaking cultures are barley, fainites, crosses and kings in the United Kingdom, pegs and nibs in New Zealand
and variants of barley in Australia. In the United States, terms based on time-out have, from the 1950s onwards, largely supplanted earlier common terms based on kings exe. Since the late 1980s time-out has been recorded in other English
speaking cultures besides the US. Examples of use of truce terms are if a child has a stitch
or wants to raise a point on the rules of the game.
Traditionally these terms are specific to certain geographical areas although some may be used by a particular social group such as pax in the UK, used primarily by children attending private schools. To be functional a truce term must be understood and honoured by most of the children playing together.
The most extensive study of the use and incidence of these terms is that undertaken by folklorists Iona and Peter Opie
in the UK in their 1959 book, The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren, which mapped the use of truce terms across England, Wales and Scotland. The Opies considered it the most important word in a schoolchild's vocabulary
and one for which there was no adult equivalent. There has been little recent research in the UK but such research as there has been indicates that truce terms, including some of those prevalent in the late 1950s, are still in general use. Studies conducted since the 1970s in English speaking cultures show that truce terms are also prevalent in Australia, New Zealand
and the United States with a number of terms deriving from older terms used in the UK, but many not.
The use of a truce term is usually accompanied by a gesture, such as crossed fingers of one or both hands or the raising of thumbs. In the US a T-shape made with both hands (representing time-out) has become prevalent and this gesture is also appearing in other countries.
, a shoelace being undone, fear of clothes being damaged, needing to go to the lavatory, checking the time, wanting to discuss or clarify rules during a fight or game, or one combatant wanting to remove their spectacles or jacket before continuing. It does not mean to surrender, although it may sometimes be used in preparation to surrendering. Truce terms are only used within a specific age group, have little currency outside that group and are by and large abandoned by the age of 10 or 11 years. However, research into early recorded use of these terms found examples of some of these terms being used as a sign of surrender in battle or adult fights or quarrels as late as the 18th century.
The vocabulary of children's games, including truce terms, is described by sociolinguist
Peter Trudgill
in Dialects of England as being particularly rich in regional variation insofar as they are not based on official or television culture. They are an example of the subculture of young children which is transmitted by word of mouth.
areas were often at odds with words used in the surrounding countryside. The Opies recorded around 45 truce terms plus variations. The most widely used were barley, fainites, kings, crosses, keys, skinch, cree and scribs.
Barley was recorded by the Opies as the prevailing term in east Scotland and the Borders, the Lake District
, north-west England, west midlands
and in Wales, apart from the south east of Wales where cree prevailed. There were many variations such as barley-bay, barley-bees, barlow or barrels. The use of barlay as a truce term appears in the 14th century poem Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight
and Tobias Smollett
's The Reprisal. It is recorded in lexicographer John Jamieson
's 1808 Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language as a term specifically used by children to demand truce. A probable variation also appears in the 1568 manuscript Chrysts-Kirk of the Grene, sometimes attributed to James I of Scotland
, as follows;
The "Thoume" (thumb) that is "sklyss" (sliced) in the quote above may refer to the thumb having been raised by the man calling barlafummill, a common accompanying gesture to the use of a truce term in Scotland.
Fainites and fains (or vainites and vains) predominated in London and throughout southern England, apart from the scribs and screams of east Hampshire
, and extended north as far as Olney in Buckinghamshire
. Variations included fennits, fannies, fainsies, faylines, vainlights and vainyards. Notes and Queries
reported in 1870 that fains was in common use by London schoolboys. Faints appeared in an 1889 dictionary of slang and fainits in 1891. According to philologist J. R. R. Tolkien
, the term derives from the medieval term fein I, descended in turn from the Old French
se feindre meaning "to make excuses, hang back or back out of battle". He also proposes that this use of the term throws light on line 529 of the Clerk's Tale by Chaucer
that "lordes heestes mowe nat been yfeyned" (the lords orders cannot be treated with a fain I; in other words, declined). Another translation of the Anglo-Norman word feindre is "pretend, feign, turn a blind eye to", which is what the more powerful child does whilst granting respite.
Spoken English south of the Danelaw
became, from at least the 11th century onwards, characterised by a pronunciation known as Southern Voicing, such as vrog for frog, or zummer for summer. Vainites or vains, variants of fainites or fains, are surviving examples of this on the borders of the Danelaw to the north of London. Other truce terms prevail within the Danelaw.
Kings was recorded by the Opies as common in eastern England. The English Dialect Dictionary
recorded much the same in the nineteenth century. The earliest recorded instance the Opies found was in Sternberg's 1851 Dialect of Northamptonshire. Queens is recorded as used in the kings area, sometimes as an alternative and sometimes as indicating readiness to restart the game. Kings truce is found in Thomas Dekker's The Honest Whore
, Part One (II,i), which appeared in I604. The term is used in the play to halt a quarrel.
Crosses, cruces, creases and cree were found in a broad band across England from crosses in Lincolnshire
, cruce or cruces from Oxford
through to Gloucester
, creases in Berkshire
and cree in South Wales
and both sides of the Bristol Channel
. There are some areas of scruces, screwsies or screws in Essex and Suffolk. The Opies saw creases as a transitional word.
Exes, used around Ipswich
and Norwich
, was thought to be a variant of crosses.
Bars and sometimes barsies were common in Devon
in an otherwise predominantly fainites area. Bar was used the other side of the Bristol channel
in Swansea
.
Skinch or skinge predominated in Northumberland
and Durham
, another term first recorded in a nineteenth-century dialect
dictionary.
Keys was found by the Opies to be the prevailing term in western Scotland and in a strip running through north-west England in an otherwise predominantly barley area.
Scribs or squibs coverered an area from Hampshire
, to West Sussex
and Surrey
. Other Hampshire variants were scrims, screens, scrames, screams, creams and cribs.
Finns was used in Guernsey
.
Pax, (latin
for "peace"), was a group dialect word rather than a regional one as it was predominantly used in private schools and school stories
.
Many individual cities, towns and rural districts had their own words, not used elsewhere such as bees, blobs, croggies, denny, keppies, locks, peas, peril, nix, truce, snakes and twigs.
in 1974 confirmed the Opies' findings. However, a later study undertaken in Croydon
, Surrey in 1988 found the use of truce terms much less uniform. Croydon is firmly in the fainites area on the Opies' map, but in 1988 fainites was only the third most commonly used term. The most common terms were pax (30%), jecs (25%), fainites (20%) and cross keys (2%). Jecs is a term not recorded by the Opies at all and there was some evidence that it derived from the word injection. Fainites was known more than it was used and was reported by one teacher to be "totally lacking in street credibility". Pax was no longer a group word as reported by the Opies. Other terms reported included pips, force field
and quits. The authors concluded that either the Opies had grossly oversimplified the picture or things had radically changed in 30 years (some seven to eight generations of primary school children). They also noted that although some schools reported a marked preference for a particular term, all schools reported at least some children using different terms.
The Concise Scots
Language Dictionary published in 1999, records the use of keys as a truce term in Fife, south west and west central Scotland.
using barley, New South Welshmen
using bar or bars and the people of Western Australia
using barlies.
by lexicographers
Laurie and Winifred Bauer on traditional forms of play included truce terms. The terms they described in their study were regional and the most common were pegs (widespread), twigs (Taranaki), gates (Auckland), tags (Nelson Marlborough), and nibs (Otago-Southland). In Wellington
schools the dominant term was fans, recorded in New Zealand before 1920, which the authors state derives from fains or fain it as described by the Opies, itself dating back to Chaucerian times. The most widespread term was pegs, derived from pax. Apparently unrecorded before World War II this appears to have first changed to pags, probably from being shouted out at length, and then further mutated by virtue of broad New Zealand accents to pegs. The Bauers thought the most likely hypothesis for the use of this rather upper class term from the UK, was that it derived from books and stories about UK public schools
. Similarly they thought nibs derived from nix, possibly via nigs, originally from South Africa though unknown to the Opies save for a very small area of nicks possibly from nicklas. Nix is also UK public school slang though not as a truce term. Nixs and flix were recorded as having been described by a South African boy as prevalent in South Africa
, and were thought by a South African linguist to have derived from an Afrikaans
term.
Many of the common truce terms recorded by the Bauers such as bags, poison, gates, tags, flicks, are not listed by the Opies although they speculated that both bags and tags may derive from pax.
records the historical use of kings ex, kings sax, kings cruse, kings excuse and kings, chiefly west of the Mississippi River
, the Gulf States and Ohio Valley. The earliest recorded use cited in the dictionary is of kings cruse in 1778 during an adult fight.
Scholarly speculation in the late nineteenth century postulated that kings X derived from kings truce, rendered as kings cruse and then kings excuse, becoming kings X as a shortened form. The Dictionary of American Regional English cites the Opies as a source for the derivation of the terms and states that exes probably refers to the use of crossed fingers, an important part of the demand for a truce, rather than deriving from "excuse" as originally thought. However, the Knapps state that although the Opies do not record kings X as such in the UK, they do record kings, crosses, exes, cruse and truce. They conclude that kings X derived from the users of kings and exes settling in the same areas of the US—the terms were then combined and shortened. Kings cruse, once popular in the US, might be accounted for in a similar manner. Barley has been recorded as a truce term in Ohio
, Wisconsin
, and Virginia
.
The Knapps study in Monroe County
, Indiana
, found time-out and times to be by far the most prevalent terms in the 1970s. Variations included I've got times and time. Very few children reported the more traditional kings, queens or I've got kings X. The authors also reported that these terms were popular over many areas of the US and in American schools abroad. To be functional a truce term must be understood and honoured by most of the children playing together. Time-out clearly derives from the use of intermissions in timed sports and apparently came into the language with the popularization of organized or timed sports and with the advent of such sports in elementary schools and on television. Historically the earliest reports for the use of time-out or time as a truce term were 1935 and 1936. However, only a small number of respondents reported anything other than time-out and its derivatives in use during the 1960s. The few alternatives included pax, safe, base or home-base and freeze with one small area of fins (Mount Vernon
). The Knapps reported that time-out had, since the 1950s, supplanted kings ex as the most popular truce term.
The use of times rather than time-out and I've got times rather than I call time appears to have been influenced by older forms such as kings and I've got kings X. There was also one report of times X. Similarly derivatives of time-out are often accompanied by the traditional crossed fingers.
children use the word pouce as the equivalent of the English pax and the American time-out. The literal translation of pouce is thumb
or big toe.
The Opies found that in England and Wales children usually held up crossed fingers. Sometimes crossing the fingers of both hands was required and occasionally the feet as well. The Opies found one area, Headington
, where sitting cross-legged was required. At Lydney
, a children could raise their right hand palm forward, whilst in Bradford-on-Avon the hand was held up with three fingers extended. In some parts of Scotland the custom was to put up one's thumbs, sometimes licking them first. This also occurred in a few places in Lancashire
. Anecdotally, the raising of a thumb may also accompany the use of pouce in France.
The 1988 Croydon study found a variety of gestures in common use. These were crossed fingers of one hand (44%), crossed fingers of both hands (26%), thumbs through fingers (6%) (boys only) and arms crossed across the chest (2%). Other gestures, reported in ones and twos, included miming an injection into the arm, licking the thumb, making a T-shape with the hands, three fingers held up and the "Vulcan" sign from Star Trek
. Virtually all schools reported the use of crossed fingers.
The holding up of one hand with middle and index fingers crossed was the usual gesture found in New Zealand in 1999–2001. The T-shape was also used when saying time-out. The time-out gesture is made with two hands - one hand held horizontally, palm down, the other hand vertically with the fingertips touching the bottom of the horizontal hand. In the US, although the more modern time-out has largely supplanted traditional terms, often accompanied by the time-out gesture, the crossed fingers gesture remains common.
Word
In language, a word is the smallest free form that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content . This contrasts with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning but will not necessarily stand on its own...
or short phrase
Phrase
In everyday speech, a phrase may refer to any group of words. In linguistics, a phrase is a group of words which form a constituent and so function as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence. A phrase is lower on the grammatical hierarchy than a clause....
accepted within a community of children as an effective way of calling for a temporary respite or truce during a game or activity. Common examples in English speaking cultures are barley, fainites, crosses and kings in the United Kingdom, pegs and nibs in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and variants of barley in Australia. In the United States, terms based on time-out have, from the 1950s onwards, largely supplanted earlier common terms based on kings exe. Since the late 1980s time-out has been recorded in other English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
speaking cultures besides the US. Examples of use of truce terms are if a child has a stitch
Side stitch
A side stitch is an intense stabbing pain under the lower edge of the ribcage that occurs while exercising. It is also referred to as exercise related transient abdominal pain...
or wants to raise a point on the rules of the game.
Traditionally these terms are specific to certain geographical areas although some may be used by a particular social group such as pax in the UK, used primarily by children attending private schools. To be functional a truce term must be understood and honoured by most of the children playing together.
The most extensive study of the use and incidence of these terms is that undertaken by folklorists Iona and Peter Opie
Peter and Iona Opie
Iona Archibald Opie and Peter Mason Opie were a husband-and-wife team of folklorists, who applied modern techniques to children's literature, summarized in their studies, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes and The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren...
in the UK in their 1959 book, The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren, which mapped the use of truce terms across England, Wales and Scotland. The Opies considered it the most important word in a schoolchild's vocabulary
Vocabulary
A person's vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge...
and one for which there was no adult equivalent. There has been little recent research in the UK but such research as there has been indicates that truce terms, including some of those prevalent in the late 1950s, are still in general use. Studies conducted since the 1970s in English speaking cultures show that truce terms are also prevalent in Australia, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and the United States with a number of terms deriving from older terms used in the UK, but many not.
The use of a truce term is usually accompanied by a gesture, such as crossed fingers of one or both hands or the raising of thumbs. In the US a T-shape made with both hands (representing time-out) has become prevalent and this gesture is also appearing in other countries.
Use
Truce terms are recorded as having been used in the following circumstances; being out of breath, having a stitchSide stitch
A side stitch is an intense stabbing pain under the lower edge of the ribcage that occurs while exercising. It is also referred to as exercise related transient abdominal pain...
, a shoelace being undone, fear of clothes being damaged, needing to go to the lavatory, checking the time, wanting to discuss or clarify rules during a fight or game, or one combatant wanting to remove their spectacles or jacket before continuing. It does not mean to surrender, although it may sometimes be used in preparation to surrendering. Truce terms are only used within a specific age group, have little currency outside that group and are by and large abandoned by the age of 10 or 11 years. However, research into early recorded use of these terms found examples of some of these terms being used as a sign of surrender in battle or adult fights or quarrels as late as the 18th century.
The vocabulary of children's games, including truce terms, is described by sociolinguist
Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society...
Peter Trudgill
Peter Trudgill
Professor Peter Trudgill FBA is a sociolinguist, academic and author.He was born in 1943 in Norwich, England, where he attended the City of Norwich School from 1955....
in Dialects of England as being particularly rich in regional variation insofar as they are not based on official or television culture. They are an example of the subculture of young children which is transmitted by word of mouth.
Opie study
The Opies conducted a study of the use of truce terms throughout England, Scotland and Wales in the 1950s and published their results in a book called The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren. They found truce terms varied according to geographical location, with the exception of pax. In some places, more than one term was current and often four or five were known, although usually only one term predominated. Schools bordering two linguistic regions honoured both. The words used in urbanUrban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
areas were often at odds with words used in the surrounding countryside. The Opies recorded around 45 truce terms plus variations. The most widely used were barley, fainites, kings, crosses, keys, skinch, cree and scribs.
Barley was recorded by the Opies as the prevailing term in east Scotland and the Borders, the Lake District
Lake District
The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...
, north-west England, west midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
and in Wales, apart from the south east of Wales where cree prevailed. There were many variations such as barley-bay, barley-bees, barlow or barrels. The use of barlay as a truce term appears in the 14th century poem Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English alliterative romance outlining an adventure of Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table. In the poem, Sir Gawain accepts a challenge from a mysterious warrior who is completely green, from his clothes and hair to his...
and Tobias Smollett
Tobias Smollett
Tobias George Smollett was a Scottish poet and author. He was best known for his picaresque novels, such as The Adventures of Roderick Random and The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle , which influenced later novelists such as Charles Dickens.-Life:Smollett was born at Dalquhurn, now part of Renton,...
's The Reprisal. It is recorded in lexicographer John Jamieson
John Jamieson
John Jamieson FRSE was a Scottish minister of religion, lexicographer, philologist and antiquary.The son of the Rev John Jamieson, Minister of the Associate Congregation, Duke Street, Glasgow, he was educated at Glasgow Grammar School.He was educated at the University of Glasgow, and subsequently...
's 1808 Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language as a term specifically used by children to demand truce. A probable variation also appears in the 1568 manuscript Chrysts-Kirk of the Grene, sometimes attributed to James I of Scotland
James I of Scotland
James I, King of Scots , was the son of Robert III and Annabella Drummond. He was probably born in late July 1394 in Dunfermline as youngest of three sons...
, as follows;
-
- Thocht he was wicht, he was nocht wyss,
- With sic Jangleurs to jummill;
- For frae his Thoume they dang a Sklyss,
- Quhyle he cry'd Barlafummill.
- Thocht he was wicht, he was nocht wyss,
The "Thoume" (thumb) that is "sklyss" (sliced) in the quote above may refer to the thumb having been raised by the man calling barlafummill, a common accompanying gesture to the use of a truce term in Scotland.
Fainites and fains (or vainites and vains) predominated in London and throughout southern England, apart from the scribs and screams of east Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, and extended north as far as Olney in Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
. Variations included fennits, fannies, fainsies, faylines, vainlights and vainyards. Notes and Queries
Notes and Queries
Notes and Queries is a long-running quarterly scholarly journal that publishes short articles related to "English language and literature, lexicography, history, and scholarly antiquarianism". Its emphasis is on "the factual rather than the speculative"...
reported in 1870 that fains was in common use by London schoolboys. Faints appeared in an 1889 dictionary of slang and fainits in 1891. According to philologist J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
, the term derives from the medieval term fein I, descended in turn from the Old French
Old French
Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...
se feindre meaning "to make excuses, hang back or back out of battle". He also proposes that this use of the term throws light on line 529 of the Clerk's Tale by Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...
that "lordes heestes mowe nat been yfeyned" (the lords orders cannot be treated with a fain I; in other words, declined). Another translation of the Anglo-Norman word feindre is "pretend, feign, turn a blind eye to", which is what the more powerful child does whilst granting respite.
Spoken English south of the Danelaw
Danelaw
The Danelaw, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , is a historical name given to the part of England in which the laws of the "Danes" held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. It is contrasted with "West Saxon law" and "Mercian law". The term has been extended by modern historians to...
became, from at least the 11th century onwards, characterised by a pronunciation known as Southern Voicing, such as vrog for frog, or zummer for summer. Vainites or vains, variants of fainites or fains, are surviving examples of this on the borders of the Danelaw to the north of London. Other truce terms prevail within the Danelaw.
Kings was recorded by the Opies as common in eastern England. The English Dialect Dictionary
Joseph Wright (linguist)
Joseph Wright FBA was an English philologist who rose from humble origins to become Professor of Comparative Philology at Oxford University.-Early life:...
recorded much the same in the nineteenth century. The earliest recorded instance the Opies found was in Sternberg's 1851 Dialect of Northamptonshire. Queens is recorded as used in the kings area, sometimes as an alternative and sometimes as indicating readiness to restart the game. Kings truce is found in Thomas Dekker's The Honest Whore
The Honest Whore
The Honest Whore is an early Jacobean city comedy, written in two parts; Part 1 is a collaboration between Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton, while Part 2 is the work of Dekker alone...
, Part One (II,i), which appeared in I604. The term is used in the play to halt a quarrel.
Crosses, cruces, creases and cree were found in a broad band across England from crosses in Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
, cruce or cruces from Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
through to Gloucester
Gloucester
Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....
, creases in Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
and cree in South Wales
South Wales
South Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...
and both sides of the Bristol Channel
Bristol Channel
The Bristol Channel is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Severn to the North Atlantic Ocean...
. There are some areas of scruces, screwsies or screws in Essex and Suffolk. The Opies saw creases as a transitional word.
Exes, used around Ipswich
Ipswich
Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...
and Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
, was thought to be a variant of crosses.
Bars and sometimes barsies were common in Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
in an otherwise predominantly fainites area. Bar was used the other side of the Bristol channel
Bristol Channel
The Bristol Channel is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Severn to the North Atlantic Ocean...
in Swansea
Swansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
.
Skinch or skinge predominated in Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
and Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
, another term first recorded in a nineteenth-century dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
dictionary.
Keys was found by the Opies to be the prevailing term in western Scotland and in a strip running through north-west England in an otherwise predominantly barley area.
Scribs or squibs coverered an area from Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, to West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
and Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
. Other Hampshire variants were scrims, screens, scrames, screams, creams and cribs.
Finns was used in Guernsey
Guernsey
Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.The Bailiwick, as a governing entity, embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, Burhou, and Lihou and their islet...
.
Pax, (latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
for "peace"), was a group dialect word rather than a regional one as it was predominantly used in private schools and school stories
School story
The school story is a fiction genre centering on older pre-adolescent and adolescent school life, at its most popular in the first half of the twentieth century. While examples do exist in other countries, it is most commonly set in English boarding schools and mostly written in girls and boys sub...
.
Many individual cities, towns and rural districts had their own words, not used elsewhere such as bees, blobs, croggies, denny, keppies, locks, peas, peril, nix, truce, snakes and twigs.
Post-Opie studies
A study undertaken in LincolnshireLincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
in 1974 confirmed the Opies' findings. However, a later study undertaken in Croydon
Croydon
Croydon is a town in South London, England, located within the London Borough of Croydon to which it gives its name. It is situated south of Charing Cross...
, Surrey in 1988 found the use of truce terms much less uniform. Croydon is firmly in the fainites area on the Opies' map, but in 1988 fainites was only the third most commonly used term. The most common terms were pax (30%), jecs (25%), fainites (20%) and cross keys (2%). Jecs is a term not recorded by the Opies at all and there was some evidence that it derived from the word injection. Fainites was known more than it was used and was reported by one teacher to be "totally lacking in street credibility". Pax was no longer a group word as reported by the Opies. Other terms reported included pips, force field
Force field
A force field, sometimes known as an energy shield, force shield, or deflector shield is a concept of a field tightly bounded and of significant magnitude so that objects affected by the particular force relating to the field are unable to pass through the central axis of the field and reach the...
and quits. The authors concluded that either the Opies had grossly oversimplified the picture or things had radically changed in 30 years (some seven to eight generations of primary school children). They also noted that although some schools reported a marked preference for a particular term, all schools reported at least some children using different terms.
The Concise Scots
Scots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
Language Dictionary published in 1999, records the use of keys as a truce term in Fife, south west and west central Scotland.
Australia
According to researchers from the National Australian Dictionary Centre there is evidence that barley (Scotland and the west of England), barlies (Aberdeen and a few English towns), bar (Swansea) and bars (Devon), are used in Australia. In Australia the terms are used regionally with VictoriansVictoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
using barley, New South Welshmen
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
using bar or bars and the people of Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
using barlies.
New Zealand
A study undertaken between 1999 and 2001 in New ZealandNew Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
by lexicographers
Lexicography
Lexicography is divided into two related disciplines:*Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries....
Laurie and Winifred Bauer on traditional forms of play included truce terms. The terms they described in their study were regional and the most common were pegs (widespread), twigs (Taranaki), gates (Auckland), tags (Nelson Marlborough), and nibs (Otago-Southland). In Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
schools the dominant term was fans, recorded in New Zealand before 1920, which the authors state derives from fains or fain it as described by the Opies, itself dating back to Chaucerian times. The most widespread term was pegs, derived from pax. Apparently unrecorded before World War II this appears to have first changed to pags, probably from being shouted out at length, and then further mutated by virtue of broad New Zealand accents to pegs. The Bauers thought the most likely hypothesis for the use of this rather upper class term from the UK, was that it derived from books and stories about UK public schools
Public School (UK)
A public school, in common British usage, is a school that is neither administered nor financed by the state or from taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of endowments, tuition fees and charitable contributions, usually existing as a non profit-making charitable trust...
. Similarly they thought nibs derived from nix, possibly via nigs, originally from South Africa though unknown to the Opies save for a very small area of nicks possibly from nicklas. Nix is also UK public school slang though not as a truce term. Nixs and flix were recorded as having been described by a South African boy as prevalent in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, and were thought by a South African linguist to have derived from an Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
term.
Many of the common truce terms recorded by the Bauers such as bags, poison, gates, tags, flicks, are not listed by the Opies although they speculated that both bags and tags may derive from pax.
United States
In a study undertaken by historians Mary and Herbert Knapp in the 1970s, informants remembering terms from the 1930s reported kings X and kings. The use of kings X before the 1930s is well-recorded. The 1985 edition of the Dictionary of American Regional EnglishDictionary of American Regional English
The Dictionary of American Regional English is a record of American English as spoken in the United States, from its beginning up to the present...
records the historical use of kings ex, kings sax, kings cruse, kings excuse and kings, chiefly west of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
, the Gulf States and Ohio Valley. The earliest recorded use cited in the dictionary is of kings cruse in 1778 during an adult fight.
Scholarly speculation in the late nineteenth century postulated that kings X derived from kings truce, rendered as kings cruse and then kings excuse, becoming kings X as a shortened form. The Dictionary of American Regional English cites the Opies as a source for the derivation of the terms and states that exes probably refers to the use of crossed fingers, an important part of the demand for a truce, rather than deriving from "excuse" as originally thought. However, the Knapps state that although the Opies do not record kings X as such in the UK, they do record kings, crosses, exes, cruse and truce. They conclude that kings X derived from the users of kings and exes settling in the same areas of the US—the terms were then combined and shortened. Kings cruse, once popular in the US, might be accounted for in a similar manner. Barley has been recorded as a truce term in Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
, and Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
.
The Knapps study in Monroe County
Monroe County, Indiana
As of the census of 2010, there were 137,974 people, 46,898 households, and 24,715 families residing in the county. The population density was 306 people per square mile . There were 50,846 housing units at an average density of 129 per square mile...
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, found time-out and times to be by far the most prevalent terms in the 1970s. Variations included I've got times and time. Very few children reported the more traditional kings, queens or I've got kings X. The authors also reported that these terms were popular over many areas of the US and in American schools abroad. To be functional a truce term must be understood and honoured by most of the children playing together. Time-out clearly derives from the use of intermissions in timed sports and apparently came into the language with the popularization of organized or timed sports and with the advent of such sports in elementary schools and on television. Historically the earliest reports for the use of time-out or time as a truce term were 1935 and 1936. However, only a small number of respondents reported anything other than time-out and its derivatives in use during the 1960s. The few alternatives included pax, safe, base or home-base and freeze with one small area of fins (Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon, New York
Mount Vernon is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. It lies on the border of the New York City borough of The Bronx.-Overview:...
). The Knapps reported that time-out had, since the 1950s, supplanted kings ex as the most popular truce term.
The use of times rather than time-out and I've got times rather than I call time appears to have been influenced by older forms such as kings and I've got kings X. There was also one report of times X. Similarly derivatives of time-out are often accompanied by the traditional crossed fingers.
France
In FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
children use the word pouce as the equivalent of the English pax and the American time-out. The literal translation of pouce is thumb
Thumb
The thumb is the first digit of the hand. When a person is standing in the medical anatomical position , the thumb is the lateral-most digit...
or big toe.
Gestures
Headington
Headington is a suburb of Oxford, England. It is at the top of Headington Hill overlooking the city in the Thames Valley below. The life of the large residential area is centred upon London Road, the main road between London and Oxford.-History:...
, where sitting cross-legged was required. At Lydney
Lydney
Lydney is a small town and civil parish in the English county of Gloucestershire. It is located on the west bank of the River Severn, close to the Forest of Dean. The town lies on the A48 road, next to the Lydney Park gardens with its Roman temple in honour of Nodens.-Transport:The Severn Railway...
, a children could raise their right hand palm forward, whilst in Bradford-on-Avon the hand was held up with three fingers extended. In some parts of Scotland the custom was to put up one's thumbs, sometimes licking them first. This also occurred in a few places in Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
. Anecdotally, the raising of a thumb may also accompany the use of pouce in France.
The 1988 Croydon study found a variety of gestures in common use. These were crossed fingers of one hand (44%), crossed fingers of both hands (26%), thumbs through fingers (6%) (boys only) and arms crossed across the chest (2%). Other gestures, reported in ones and twos, included miming an injection into the arm, licking the thumb, making a T-shape with the hands, three fingers held up and the "Vulcan" sign from Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
. Virtually all schools reported the use of crossed fingers.
The holding up of one hand with middle and index fingers crossed was the usual gesture found in New Zealand in 1999–2001. The T-shape was also used when saying time-out. The time-out gesture is made with two hands - one hand held horizontally, palm down, the other hand vertically with the fingertips touching the bottom of the horizontal hand. In the US, although the more modern time-out has largely supplanted traditional terms, often accompanied by the time-out gesture, the crossed fingers gesture remains common.