School Butter

Rose in Lebanon, Virginia recalls a phrase passed down from her great-grandmother: The night before the first day of school, parents would come into the children’s bedroom and say in a singsong voice: School butter, school butter. This expression started in the UK and Ireland and is at least 350 years old. It refers to schoolboys hitting each other, with the butter in the phrase figuratively referring to making butter by beating or whipping it. A more elaborate version of the phrase goes School butter, chicken flutter, rotten eggs for your daddy’s supper. This is part of a complete episode.