Charlie in Lexington, Kentucky, says his wife, who’s from the eastern part of the state, uses a peculiar phrase to indicate that something’s not her responsibility: Not my circus, not my monkeys. This dismissive saying is at least 30 years old, and is a calque, or exact translation, of a Polish phrase that Nie mój cyrk, nie moje małpy. English speakers elaborated on the expression, with several other versions such as Not my circus, not my monkeys, but the clowns definitely know me. Other versions: Not my money, not my business and Not my pig, not my farm. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi there, I’m Charlie Lutz from Lexington, Kentucky.
Hey, Charlie, welcome to the show. What’s up?
Well, Grant, I’m an old guy, but I’m also a newlywed.
And my wonderful, amazing wife, who is from eastern Kentucky, used an expression that was entirely new to me.
Well, I’m now 68 years old, so I’ve been around a while, but I hadn’t heard this one.
As her way of saying that something is no longer her responsibility, such as when she retired, all that work stuff was no longer her responsibility.
Her phrase was, not my circus, not my monkeys.
Which I thought was just, well, it delighted me anyway.
And Charlie, what exactly did she mean by that?
Not my circus, not my monkeys.
That’s no longer my responsibility. I don’t have to worry about all that stuff. That’s in somebody else’s hands now. It doesn’t necessarily mean, you know, I hope they fail or I hope they succeed or anything. It just means it’s not my responsibility.
Yeah, that’s a great phrase.
Where is she from in eastern Kentucky? I have to ask.
She grew up in Ashland and her people come from Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
And I don’t know exactly when they came into Kentucky, maybe a long time ago, but at any rate, Pennsylvania and West Virginia were the kind of precursor locations.
Okay. And she never told you where she learned that?
No, she didn’t. She didn’t know.
She just said it wasn’t original to her, but she didn’t recall where she had learned that.
But given that, I’ve never heard that before.
I’m thinking it’s kind of particular.
Well, the reason that I was asking about Polish is that apparently it comes from a Polish saying that is the same idea.
Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Grant, do you want to give that Polish a crack?
I apologize to the Polish-speaking people of the world, but it’s something like, Niemolich, Niemolich Malpe.
Something like that.
Something like that.
Niemolich Malpe.
Yeah, that’s actually very good.
And it means not my circus, not my monkeys with exactly that sense.
You know, this mess doesn’t have anything to do with me, but I know what you’re talking about.
And there are different variations of this, not my circus, not my monkeys, but the clowns definitely know me.
Some people add that little, but the clowns definitely.
That makes it even better.
Yeah, your wife might appreciate that.
Yeah, I’ve heard other examples of this, like not my money, not my business.
My favorite is not my pig, not my farm.
I’ve actually adopted that one.
Not my pig, not my farm.
Just, you know, you wash your hands of it.
You just walk away from it.
As far as we know, it’s reflected in Polish.
It’s been around for at least a couple of decades in Polish, and we seem to have picked it up.
Yeah, at least three decades.
Yeah.
Oh, so it might have originated this century, or I mean the late 20th century.
Yeah, and language researchers, and me included, have tried to trace this back in Polish further than the early 90s, and we haven’t been able to find it in print earlier than 91.
Now, it certainly could be older than that, but we just haven’t found the evidence yet.
Cool.
And it’s what linguists call a calc.
It’s a borrowing that’s a word-by-word translation of the exact Polish.
Not my circus, not my monkeys.
And then something happened in 2014, Martha.
Suddenly, the whole internet was alive with people passing this phrase around.
And T-shirts were being made and screenshots and motivational signage and all kinds of snarky stuff on every social media platform where it just exploded in popularity.
I’m not sure why, but just in 2014, it just became huge in English.
So, Charlie, that could be a good gift for your new wife, you know, a T-shirt or a mug with that on it.
You can find them on the Internet.
Okay, and the last part is, but I know the clowns.
Yeah, not my circus, not my monkeys, but the clowns definitely know me.
Oh, the clowns know me.
Okay, the clowns know me.
Interesting.
Well, in my opinion, that makes it even better.
Yeah, try that one out on her.
Charlie, thank you so much for calling.
Take care now.
Yeah, fun to talk to you.
Bye-bye.
Thanks to your wife.
Well, do you have a variation on not my circus, not my monkeys?
Or maybe you have another phrase you’re curious about.
Give us a call, 877-929-9673, or send it to us in email.
That address is words@waywordradio.org.
