Sticks and Stones

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" is an English-language children's rhyme primarily intended as a defense against verbal bullying and name-calling. It aims to foster resilience, encourage individuals to avoid physical retaliation, and help them remain calm when faced with insults.

The core sentiment of the rhyme can be traced back to the early 19th century. Alexander William Kinglake used the phrase "golden sticks and stones" in his work "Eothen," written in 1830 and published in 1844.

More direct variants of the rhyme appeared in print in the mid-1800s. An article by F.R. Horner in Liverpool's Northern Times on July 23, 1857, included the phrase, noting it as a "schoolboy's rhyme": "Sticks and stones (says the schoolboy's rhyme) may break men's bones, but bad names will not hurt me." The Coleraine Chronicle and North of Ireland Advertiser on January 18, 1862, featured a similar line.

One of the earliest widely cited appearances was in The Christian Recorder, an American publication, on March 22, 1862. It presented the rhyme as an "old adage" in the form: "Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me," suggesting it was already a well-known saying by that time. In November 1862, E.H. Heywood, in a speech in Boston, quoted a "little Irish girl" who used the phrase.

The rhyme's intended meaning is that while physical harm can cause injury, verbal insults or "bad names" cannot truly hurt a person unless they allow them to. However, it's also widely acknowledged that words can, in reality, inflict deep and lasting emotional wounds, despite the rhyme's assertion. Nevertheless, it remains a common retort to verbal abuse, particularly among children, teaching them to respond to bullying with resilience rather than violence.