 According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the term " humpty dumpty " referred to a drink of brandy boiled with ale in the seventeenth century . The riddle probably exploited , for misdirection , the fact that " humpty dumpty " was also eighteenth @-@ century reduplicative slang for a short and clumsy person . The riddle may depend upon the assumption that a clumsy person falling off a wall might not be irreparably damaged , whereas an egg would be . The rhyme is no longer posed as a riddle , since the answer is now so well known . Similar riddles have been recorded by folklorists in other languages , such as " Boule Boule " in French , " Lille Trille " in Swedish and Norwegian , and " Runtzelken @-@ Puntzelken " or " Humpelken @-@ Pumpelken " in different parts of Germany — although none is as widely known as Humpty Dumpty is in English . 
 According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the term " humpty dumpty " referred to a drink of brandy boiled with ale in the seventeenth century . The riddle probably exploited , for misdirection , the fact that " humpty dumpty " was also eighteenth @-@ century reduplicative <a href='uninflect' title='1'><mark>slang</mark></a> for a short and clumsy person . The riddle may depend upon the assumption that a clumsy person falling off a wall might not be irreparably damaged , whereas an egg would be . The rhyme is no longer posed as a riddle , since the answer <a href='drop_aux' title='2'><mark>is</mark></a>now so well known . Similar riddles <a href='been_done' title='3'><mark>have</mark></a> been recorded by folklorists in other languages , such as " Boule Boule " in French , " Lille Trille " in Swedish and Norwegian , and " Runtzelken @-@ Puntzelken " or " Humpelken @-@ Pumpelken " in different parts of Germany — although <a href='negative_concord' title='4'><mark>none</mark></a> <a href='negative_concord' title='5'><mark>is</mark></a> as widely known as Humpty Dumpty is in English . 
According to da Oxford English Dictionary , the term " humpty dumpty " referred to a drink of brandy boiled with ale in tdaseventeenth century . The riddle probably exploited , for misdirection , thdaact that " humpty dumpty " was also eighteenth @-@ century reduplicative slanged fir a short and clumsy person . Thedaddle may depend upon the daumption dat a clumsy person falling offf a wall mite not be irreparably damaged , whereas an egg would be . The rdae ain't no longer posed as a riddle , since the answer now soo well known . Similar riddles done been recorded by folklorists in other languages , such as " Boule Boule " in French , " Lille Trille " in Swedish and Norwegian , and " Runtzelken @-@ Puntzelken " or " Humpelken @-@ Pumpelken " in different parts of Germany — although none ain't as widely known as Humpty Dumpty is in English .