A-Hunting We Will Go Explained

"A-Hunting We Will Go" is a popular folk song and nursery rhyme composed in 1777 by English composer Thomas Arne.^[1] Arne had composed the song for a 1777 production of The Beggar's Opera in London.^[2]

The a- is an archaic intensifying prefix; compare "Here We Come A-wassailing/Here We Come A-caroling" and lyrics to "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (e.g., “Six geese a-laying”).

See also

• A-Haunting We Will Go (disambiguation), a title play on this song
• "Bye, baby Bunting, Daddy's Gone A-Hunting", a similarly constructed song
• "Ee Aye Addio" - an English football chant to the same tune
• "The Farmer in the Dell" - a song with similar lyrics, content, and music
• "You're in the Army Now" - another song with similar lyrics

Notes and References

1. Book: Kelly, Ian. 2012. Mr Foote's Other Leg: Comedy, Tragedy and Murder in Georgian London. 15. Pan Macmillan.
2. Book: Sexuality in Eighteenth-century Britain . 1982 . Manchester University Press . 250.