phrases, sayings, idioms and expressions at

Pop goes the weasel

Posted by Bruce Kahl on August 21, 2000

In Reply to: Pop goes the weasel posted by Bob on August 21, 2000

: : : : I think that a 'weassel' was an iron used by London tailors, who popped their weassel when they were short of money.

: : : POP GOES THE WEASEL! - "From earliest childhood we remember with fondness the nonsense rhyme about the monkey and the weasel. Remember? 'Every night when I come home, The Monkey's on the table. I take a stick and knock him off. And Pop goes the Weasel!' Here is the background of the original, and far different, British version of this rhyme - which turns out to be not such nonsense after all. It runs: 'Up and down the City Road, In and out the Eagle, That's the way the money goes. Pop goes the weasel.' And would you believe that the whole silly rhyme started with some drunken London hatters, the kind that today's sociologists would label 'compulsive drinkers'? True. And here's the explanation. The City Road was a street in London where there was a much-liked tavern ('pub' in England, of course) called The Eagle. To it on Saturday nights, and maybe oftener, went many a hatmaker. If he was short of funds, as often happened, he pawned ('popped') his weasel (a hatmaker's tool). So there you have, unmasked, the sordid truth behind that simple nursery rhyme." From Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins by William and Mary Morris (HarperCollins, New York, 1977, 1988).

: :
: : I remember the rhyme as

: : half a pound of tuppenny rice
: : half a pound of treacle
: : thats the way the money goes
: : pop goes the weasel

: I wonder how many versions there are. I remember
: Round and round the mulberrry bush,
: The monkey chased the weasel,
: The monkey thought it was all in fun
: Pop goes the weasel.

I always knew it as:

All around the mulberry bush
the monkey chased the weasel
thats the way the story goes
Pop goes the weasel

© 1997 – 2024 Phrases.org.uk. All rights reserved.