| Little Piggies | |
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Members |
6 little Piggies |
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First Appearance |
Unknown |
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Created by |
Unknown |
Origin[]
The rhyme is usually counted out on an infant or toddler's toes, each line corresponding to a different toe, usually starting with the big toe and ending with the little toe.
One popular version is:
This little piggy went to market, This little piggy stayed home, This little piggy had roast beef, This little piggy had none, This little piggy cried "Wee! Wee! Wee!" all the way home.
In 1728, the first line of the rhyme appeared in a medley called "The Nurses Song". The first known full version was recorded in The Famous Tommy Thumb's Little Story-Book, published in London about 1760.
In this book, the rhyme goes:
This pig went to market, That pig stayed home; This pig had roast meat, That pig had none; This pig went to the barn's door, And cried week, week for more.
The full rhyme continued to appear, with slight variations, in many late 18th- and early 19th-century collections. Until the mid-20th century, the lines referred to "little pigs".
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of the Little Piggies published before January 1, 1930 are public domain in the US.
Some notable appearances are listed below:
Public Literary Appearances[]
- he Famous Tommy Thumb's Little Story-Book (1760)
- "This Little Piggie" in Children's Amusements by Walter Gregor (The Folk-Lore Journal, 1886)
- "This little pig went to market" in Dorsetshire Children's Games, &c by John Symonds Udal (The Folk-Lore Journal, 1889)
- "This little pig went to market" in A Book of Nursery Songs and Rhymes by Sabine Baring-Gould (1895).
- "This little pig went to market" in A Book of Nursery Rhymes by Charles Welsh (1901).
- "Five Toes" in The Real Mother Goose by Blanche Fisher Wright (1916)
- "This pig went to market" in Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes by Beatrix Potter (1922).
Public Domain Parade Appearances[]
- The 4th Annual Macy's Christmas Parade (1927)
Notes[]
- Agatha Christie references the nursery rhyme "This Little Piggy" in her 1942 novel Five Little Pigs. The book features Hercule Poirot.