Original version

This rhyme was first printed in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, published c. 1744 with the
following lyrics:

Bah, Bah a black Sheep,

Have you any Wool?
Yes merry have I,
Three Bags full,
One for my master,
One for my Dame,
One for the little Boy
That lives down the lane.

Origins and meaning

As with many nursery rhymes attempts have been made to find origins and meanings for the
rhyme. These include:

 A description of the medieval 'Great' or 'Old Custom' wool tax of 1275, which
survived until the fifteenth century.[1] Contrary to some commentaries, this tax did not
involve the collection of one third to the king, and one third to the church, but a less
punitive sum of 6s 8d to the Crown per sack, about 5 per cent of the value.[2] This
theory also depends on the rhyme surviving unrecorded and even unmentioned in
extant texts for hundreds of years.

 A connection to the slave trade. This explanation was advanced during debates over
political correctness and the use and reform of nursery rhymes in the 1980s, but
scholars agree that it has no basis in fact.[3]

Modern version
More recent versions tend to take the following form:

Baa, baa, black sheep,

Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir,
Three bags full.
One for the master,
One for the dame,
And one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.[1]
Variations
A second verse is sometimes also sung which finishes off the tune, again varying "boy" or
"child":

Thank you said the master,

Thank you said the dame,
Thank you said the little boy who lived down the lane.

Verses have also been written for other animals, such as:

Cluck, cluck, red hen, have you any eggs?

Yes sir, yes sir, as many as your legs.
One for your breakfast and one for your lunch;
Come back tomorrow and I'll have another bunch.
Moo, moo brown cow, have you milk for me?
Yes sir, yes sir, as tasty as can be.
Churn it into butter, make it into cheese,
Freeze it into ice cream or drink it if you please.
Buzz, buzz busy bee, is your honey sweet?
Yes sir, yes sir, sweet enough to eat.
Honey on your muffin, honey on your cake,
Honey by the spoonful, as much as I can make.

Reference in linguistics
The term 'Baa Baa Black Sheep dialect' has also been used informally in linguistics to
describe varieties of English (such as British English) that allow the syntax "Have you any
wool?" compared to others (such as American English) that prefer "Do you have any wool?"
with the auxiliary verb 'do'.[4] In the question 'Have you any wool?' the verb 'have' appears as
a transitive verb with the sense of possession, however it also appears to behave like an
auxiliary in the sense that it undergoes syntactic inversion.[5]