A Truce Term, sometimes also called a Respite Term, is a word (often associated with some kind of hand signal) that provides temporary respite during a game.
For example, stopping in the middle of a chasing game, calling out “Kings!” while crossing the first two fingers of one hand would mean that person cannot be caught for a moment.
These terms have a geographical context to them to such an extent that it is possible to guess roughly where an individual is from by asking what Truce Term they used as a child. This also means that a term that works in one place might not work in another.
Truce Terms used in this way have a history in Europe that goes back at least as far as the 14th Century and are yet another example of children and young people preserving a concept that was at one point common in the adult world. But, as the folklorists Iona and Peter Opie point out in their book, ‘The Lore and Language of School Children’ (1959),
“… when a child seeks respite he uses a term to which there is now no exact equivalent in adult speech.” (p.141/142)
Common Truce Terms in the British Isles include Kings, Crosses, Fainites, Vainites, Skinch, Barley, Cree, Pax, and the more recent Time-Out. Variations on these terms can be found all over the world; in Australia, for example, local Truce Terms such as Bar, Bars, and Barley, all of which have a particularly Scottish origin, are common.
They are often used in association with some form of hand signal, the most common which is a simple crossing of the fingers but in Scotland and France in particular the most common hand signal is to hold up a thumb. Various other combinations of crossed fingers are common too (see photo).
Where common Truce Terms overlap they sometimes combine to make a new term. For example, 'Kings' and 'Crosses' are both common Truce Terms in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire (UK) and parts of the USA yet geographically when these two terms come into contact they often become the single phrase 'Cross Kings'.
What did Truce Term did you use when you were younger, and where did you spend your childhood?
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See also Childlore, and Playlore
[photo taken by Marc in 1989 at a school in Lincolnshire during a project to explore the playlore terminology of the playground, which was published by Boothferry Borough Council as 'A Rhyme in Time' (1994)]
