"Taffy was a Welshman" is an
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to t ...
nursery rhyme
A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes.
From ...
which was popular between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. It has a
Roud Folk Song Index number of 19237.
Lyrics
Versions of this rhyme vary. Some common versions are:
Origins and history
The term "Taffy" (pronounced with a short "a" to rhyme with
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character created for Leon Schlesinger Productions by animators Tex Avery and Bob Clampett. Styled as an anthropomorphic black duck, he has appeared in cartoon series such as ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melo ...
) may be a merging of the common Welsh name "
Dafydd Dafydd is a Welsh masculine given name, related to David, and more rarely a surname. People so named include:
Given name Medieval era
:''Ordered chronologically''
* Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd (c. 1145-1203), Prince of Gwynedd
* Dafydd ap Gruffydd (123 ...
" () and the Welsh river "
Taff" on which
Cardiff
Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a ...
is built, and seems to have been in use by the mid-eighteenth century.
[M. Stephens, ''The Oxford Companion to the Literature of Wales'' (Oxford University Press, 1986), p. 569.] The term "Taffy" or "Taff" was not necessarily derogatory, though clearly it is in the verse and in many other contexts. In WW2 it was used without any slur, to refer to soldiers of Welsh origin, just as other regional slang names like Geordie, Scouse or Jock were used. Similarly a Welsh teacher in an English school might be referred to as "Taffy (surname)". However, the suggestion of a slur remains in the fact that Welsh people would very rarely refer to themselves as "A Taff", whereas, for example, Geordies might use that name for themselves. The rhyme may be related to one published in ''