The Frenchman’s last name - Poivre - is literally French for “pepper,” whereas the Latin word for pepper is piper. Historians trace the phrase back to the 1813 book aptly titled John Harris's Peter Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation.Ī popular legend ties the poem to an 18th-century botanist and horticulturalist named Pierre Poivre. Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?Ĭertainly one of the most famous tongue-twisters out there, the Peter Piper rhyme is also among the oldest on this list. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers Ī peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked Related Article: 10 Tough Tongue Twisters 5.

In the 1940s, the song became a jazz standard, further cementing the phrase in the public consciousness. That credit goes to the 1927 song I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream by the musicians Howard Johnson, Billy Moll, and Robert King. While it’s likely that similar puns were made prior to this quirky freezer ad, it wasn’t actually the advertisement that brought the rhyme to the wider audience.

Peters poker house tongue twisters