If you are fond of your clock, and the rat that runs around the kitchen, you will probably have loved the rhyme Hickory, dickory dock! This nonsense poem is fun for children as they mimic  a clock chiming.

It was first published in 1744 according to Mother Goose history. Historians also believe this rhyme could have come from America.

Hickory comes from the North American word ‘pawcohiccora’, which is liquor that is made from pounded hickory nuts. The word ‘Pohickory’’ was mentioned in a list of Virginaia trees published in 1653. The word was later shortened to ‘hickory’.

Dock is a plant, a weed which is pesky, has a long taproot and is very difficult to get rid of. It is used as a tonic or an astringent and can help if you are stung by a nettle. But what all this has to do with the rhyme is not very clear!

Anyway there is another similar rhyme that is used as a second verse to  this one. It is:

Dickery dickery dare
The pig flew up in the air
The man in brown
soon brought him down
Dickery dickery dare!

This poem is also woven into the plot of a Agatha Christie mystery novel.

There is one more rhyme like this one. It is :

Hickery, dickery, 6 and 7,
Alabone, crackabone 10 and 11,
Spin span muskidan;
Tweedle ‘um  twaddle ‘um, 21.

There are many more copies of this rhyme and they all seem to teach us to talk about time in an interesting way! And maybe to be interested more in rats! UGG!