A truce term is a word or short phrase accepted within a community of children as an effective way of calling for a temporary respite or truce during a game or activity, such as tag or its variants. Common examples in English-speaking cultures are barley, fainites, crosses, kings and exe(s) in the United Kingdom, pegs and nibs in New Zealand and variants of barley in Australia. In the United States, terms based on time-out have, from the 1950s onwards, largely supplanted earlier common terms based on kings and exe(s). Since the late 1980s, time-out has been recorded in other English-speaking cultures besides the US. Examples of use of truce terms are if a child has a stitch or wants to raise a point on the rules of the game. Traditionally, these terms are specific to certain geographical areas, although some may be used by a particular social group, such as pax in the UK (used primarily by children attending private schools). To be functional, a truce term must be understood and honoured by most of the children playing together. The most extensive study of the use and incidence of these terms is that undertaken by folklorists Iona and Peter Opie in the UK in their 1959 book The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren, which mapped the use of truce terms across England, Wales and Scotland. The Opies considered it the most important word in a schoolchild's vocabulary and one for which there was no adult equivalent. There has been little recent research in the UK, but such research as exists indicates that truce terms, including some of those prevalent in the late 1950s, are still in general use. Studies conducted since the 1970s in English-speaking cultures show that truce terms are also prevalent in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States, with a number of terms deriving from older terms used in the UK, but many not. The use of a truce term is usually accompanied by a gesture, such as crossed fingers of one or both hands or the raising of thumbs. In the US, a T-shape made with both hands (representing time-out) has become prevalent and this gesture is also appearing in other countries.
Use Truce terms are recorded as having been used in the following circumstances: being out of breath, having a stitch, a shoelace being undone, fear of clothes being damaged, needing to go to the lavatory, checking the time, wanting to discuss or clarify rules during a fight or game, or one combatant wanting to remove their spectacles or jacket before continuing. It does not mean to surrender, although it may sometimes be used in preparation to surrendering. Truce terms are only used within a specific age group, have little currency outside that group, and are by and large abandoned by the age of 10 or 11 years. However, research into early recorded use of these terms found examples of some of these terms being used as a sign of surrender in battle or adult fights or quarrels as early as the 18th century. The vocabulary of children's games, including truce terms, is described by sociolinguist Peter Trudgill in Dialects of England as being particularly rich in regional variation insofar as it is not based on official or television culture. They are an example of the subculture of young children which is transmitted by word of mouth.
United Kingdom
Opie study The Opies conducted a study of the use of truce terms throughout England, Scotland and Wales in the 1950s and published their results in a book called The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren. They found truce terms varied according to geographical location, with the exception of pax. In some places, more than one term was current, and often four or five were known, although usually only one term predominated. Schools bordering two linguistic regions honoured both. The words used in urban areas were often at odds with words used in the surrounding countryside. The Opies recorded around 45 truce terms plus variations. The most widely used were barley, fainites, kings, crosses, keys, skinch, cree and scribs. Barley was recorded by the Opies as the prevailing term in east Scotland and the Borders, the Lake District, north-west England, west Midlands and in Wales, apart from the south-east of Wales where cree prevailed. There were many variations such as barley-bay, barley-bees, barlow or barrels. The use of barlay as a truce term appears in the 14th-century poem Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight and Tobias Smollett's The Reprisal. It is recorded in lexicographer John Jamieson's 1808 Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language as a term specifically used by children to demand truce. A probable variation also appears in the 1568 manuscript Chrysts-Kirk of the Grene, sometimes attributed to James I of Scotland, as follows:
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