What is the origin of the saying, “Oly Oly Oxen Free”?
“If you’ve ever wondered about the origins of this chant – used to call in all players at the end of a game of hide-and-seek – be advised that the experts only have a partial answer to your lifelong puzzlement. Word sleuths are fairly certain that the ‘oxen’ (or ‘octen’) in the call is simply a childish corruption of ‘all in.’ The rest remains a mystery.” From “Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins” by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997). http://www.phrases.org.uk/…/665.html Olly olly oxen free is a phrase used in children’s games, which is generally used to indicate that people who are hiding (in a game of hide and seek, for example) can safely come out into the open. The exact origin of the phrase is unknown, but etymologists suspect it is a childish corruption of a phrase that would have made more sense in the Hide-and-seek context; such as “all ye, all ye, o
