Oggy Oggy Oggy
The Oggy Oggy Oggy (or possibly Oggie Oggie Oggie) chant and its numerous variations are often heard at (primarily British) sporting events, political rallies and around Boy Scout and Girl Guide campfires.
The usual form of the chant consists of two groups, one shouting the word "Oggy!" and the other group shouting the word "Oi!" Often a single individual will shout "Oggy" and everyone else will shout the reply. The words are shouted according to the following pattern.
- Oggy Oggy Oggy!
- Oi Oi Oi!
- Oggy Oggy Oggy!
- Oi Oi Oi!
- Oggy!
- Oi!
- Oggy!
- Oi!
- Oggy Oggy Oggy!
- Oi Oi Oi!
One possible theory for the origin of the chant stems from Cornwall. An Oggy is a slang term for a Cornish pasty. Tin-miners' wives supposedly shouted "Oggy Oggy Oggy" when they dropped pasties down mine shafts to their husbands, to warn them their lunch was about to drop in on them. The chant is also the chorus of a Cornish folk song and has always been heard at Cornish rugby matches so this seems the most likely origin.
Members of the Royal Navy claim to have used the chant, or a version of it, since the second World War [1].
The chant was in common use at British football grounds during the 1960's, and probably much earlier than that.
In the 1970s the Welsh folk singer and comedian Max Boyce popularised the chant in order to excite the crowd at his concerts. Boyce was also a big rugby union fan, and through him it then began to be adopted by Welsh rugby union crowds at international matches. Soon it spread to rugby crowds at club level and eventually to many other sporting occasions at all levels. The English later picked it up, changing it from "oggie" to "Ozzie," in honour of Peter Osgood, the soccer player.
When Margaret Thatcher came to power in Britain in 1979 a variation of the chant ("Maggie Maggie Maggie, Out Out Out!") was adopted by some of her opponents.
The actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, who comes from Wales, quoted the chant in her acceptance speech when she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in the movie Chicago in 2003.
The chant has also spawned a variation used by Australian sporting crowds ("Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi! Oi! Oi!").
References
- Oxford English Dictionary (2004): "Oggy, noun. West Country regional (orig. Cornwall) and Navy slang. A Cornish pasty. [Probably an alteration of Cornish hoggan pastry, pie (18th century), perhaps cognate with Welsh chwiogen muffin, simnel-cake (1562), of unknown origin.]"
External links
Categories
Cornish culture | Cornish music | Rugby union in Wales | Football songs and chants