Where did the phrase "you're it" come from in tag?
I've researched online and cannot find a clear answer.
The person who is being tagged is being referred to as an object ("it").
Why is this so? It seems like originally when tag was created, one would say something like "You are tagged", rather than an informal phrase like "Tag, you're it." So what is the history of this phrase?
Best Answer
It's important to note that "It" in this sense is used by a number of children's games:
Apparently, "He" was also used like this:
The above are the earliest attestations in the OED for each word in this sense. Although the "He" quote is earlier, it's hard to tell which came first because it's not the type of thing that would be written down right away.