<Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> Nursery rhyme </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Published </Th> <Td> 1797 </Td> </Tr> <P> Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English nursery rhyme, probably originally a riddle and one of the best known in the English - speaking world . He is typically portrayed as a personified egg, though he is not explicitly described as such . The first recorded versions of the rhyme date from late eighteenth - century England and the tune from 1870 in James William Elliott's National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs . Its origins are obscure and several theories have been advanced to suggest original meanings . </P> <P> The character of Humpty Dumpty was popularised in the United States by actor George L. Fox (1825--77). As a character and literary allusion, he has appeared or been referred to in a large number of works of literature and popular culture, particularly Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking - Glass (1872), in which he was described as an egg . The rhyme is listed in the Roud Folk Song Index as No. 13026 . </P>

Is humpty dumpty an egg or a potato
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