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Glite Dictionary
ring-around-the-rosy

ring-around-the-rosy

1 6.0
A children's game where players hold hands, walk in a circle, and fall down while singing
  • noun
  • /ˈrɪŋ əˌraʊnd ðə ˈroʊzi/
  • Baby Talk
translation icon : anillo alrededor de la rosa
  • During recess, the kids laughed and fell down while playing ring-around-the-rosy in the schoolyard.

Examples

  • Stick figures hold hands in a circle, like children dancing ring-around-the-rosy.

    Academic text (2008)

  • A group of children held hands and danced in a circle, playing ring-around-the-rosy as they sang together.

  • Hammond is leading the pursuit in a giant game of ring-around-the-rosy.

    The Chase (1994)

  • Children invented nursery rhymes in their play, singing about, you know, you know, ring around the rosy pocket full of posies.

  • Every Saturday, the children gather to play ring-around-the-rosy, enjoying the fun of falling down together.

Synonyms

ring-around-a-rosy
vsring-around-the-rosy
  • Baby Talk
8.0

A children's game where players hold hands in a circle, sing, and fall down

is the same game but named slightly differently in wording
ring-a-rosy
vsring-around-the-rosy
  • Baby Talk
9.9

A children's game where players hold hands, move in a circle and fall down together

is the same activity but uses an alternate, more formal phrasing

Surface Forms

ring-around-the-rosy singular
ring-around-the-rosies plural

Morphology

ring-around-the-rosy = ring + the + rosy (semi-transparent) = around + ring + the + rosy

The phrase is composed of literal words that describe a circle ('ring around the rosy'), but the conventionalized name for a specific children's game cannot be fully derived from its parts. [Postprocessing: moved 'around' from base_words to prefix]

Etymology

The word ring-around-the-rosy names the children's circle game: ring means 'circle' and rosy points to 'rose' or the little flowers called 'posies' in the song. One popular story says the rhyme remembers the plague because people carried 'posies' and got very sick, but we are not sure if that is true. Either way, the name fits the game: children form a 'ring', sing, and 'fall down' together.