28 August 2020
Paddywhack is word with a dual nature. On the one hand, it is an offensive term for someone from Ireland, and on the other it is an innocent nonsense word in a children’s song.
The word first appears in the late eighteenth century. The earliest recorded instance that I have found is that Paddy Whack was the name of horse that ran a race at Carrickmacross, Ireland on 5 October 1769, as well as later races.
The earliest use of the word in the sense of an Irishman is in the 1773 diary of Robert Morris:
One fine Paddy-whack, fit for the plough & about 35 years of age, with whom we drank Chocolate at a fine Convent.
And the word is defined in Francis Grose’s 1785 A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue under the entry for whack:
WHACK, a share of a booty obtained by fraud; a paddy whack, a stout brawny Irishman
This use as an epithet was common well into the late twentieth century and can still be heard today.
In the mid nineteenth century, paddywhack developed the sense of a beating or a blow. This sense was undoubtedly due to the final syllable, whack, and may have been influenced by the stereotype of the Irish being a combative people, prone to getting into fights. In any case, the earliest use of this sense that I’m aware of is from an 1864 U.S. newspaper article that uses paddywhack to mean a defeat delivered upon an enemy in battle. From the Augusta, Georgia Daily Constitutionalist of 26 November 1864, in an article about Sherman’s March to the Sea:
A lamentable state of ignorance seems to exist as to the whereabouts of Sherman’s main body. It appears to us that reliable scouts from Greensboro or Sandersville ought to know something about it. We hope our Generals are alive to the importance of such knowledge and have exerted themselves to acquire it. While we are trifling with small detachments, the enemy in bulk may be slipping away. We do not want him to slide off with impunity. After such herculean efforts to administer a drubbing, it would be a pity to have him lose his paddy-whack.
Given that the term is an ethnic slur and a term for a violent beating, it is a bit surprising to see it appear in a children’s song. But it is the sense of a beating or blow that gives rise to this nursery use.
The Oxford English Dictionary makes reference to a tune titled Paddy Whack from the 1770s, and I have found numerous references to that (or a like-named song) from the nineteenth century. But these are references only, and I do not know if there is any relation to the children’s song we know today, which comes later.
The oldest version of the song we know today was titled Jack Jintle. This version was reconstructed from memory by Anne Gilcrist in 1937, who recalls learning the song from her Welsh nursemaid in the 1870s. There is a padlock, but no paddywhack. The song opens:
My name is Jack Jintle, the eldest but one,
And I can play nick nack upon my own thumb.
With my nick nack and padlock and sing a fine song,
And all the fine ladies come dancing along.My name is Jack Jintle, the eldest but two,
And I can play nick nack upon my own shoe
With my nick nack ... [etc.[
And Gilchrist notes:
In the first verse the singer, suiting the action to the word, rapped with her knuckle on her thumb; in the second rapped on the sole of her shoe; in the third on her knee, and so on.
But as this version is a memorial reconstruction, we cannot be sure how accurate it is to the song as was sung in the nineteenth century. In particular, the use of padlock may be a later bowdlerization by Gilchrist to avoid the ethnic slur. But Gilchrist’s note does hint at how paddywhack came to be in the song, through the action of rapping or hitting the appropriate items as the song progresses.
The version of the song as it is most commonly sung today is recorded as of 1906:
This old man, he played one,
He played nick nack on my drum;
Nick nack paddy whack, give the dog a bone,
This old man came rolling home.This old man, he played two,
He played nick nack on my shoe ... [etc.]
So, that’s how an ethnic slur wormed its way into a children’s song.
Sources:
Gilchrist, Anne G. “A Nursery Song and Two Game Songs.” Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, December 1937, vol. 3, no. 2, 124.
Gould, S. Baring and Cecil J. Sharp. “46.—This Old Man.” English Folk-Songs for Schools. London: J. Curwen, 1906[?], 94–95. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Grose, Francis. A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. London: S. Hooper, 1785, s.v. whack. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, March 2005, s.v. paddywhack, n.
“The Situation.” Daily Constitutionalist (Augusta, Georgia), 26 November 1864, 3. NewsBank: America’s Historical Newspapers.
Walker, B. An Historical List of Horse-Matches, Plates and Prizes, vol. 1. London: 1770, 175. Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO).