Your understanding may be that it was "itsy-bitsy," "eensy-weensy," "itty-bitty," incy-wincy," or even "inky-dinky." What on earth am I talking about, and which description are you convinced is the correct one?

Why it's the itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka-dot bikini That she wore for the first time today.

Cute idea, but not the right one. I'm thinking of something with which most of us became familiar long before we ever thought about bikinis. (Or, at least, I hope so.)

I'll go for the arachnid.

http://www.brainymusic.com/songlink/s/spider.html

....and it's incy-wincy, of course. ;)

The arachnid is the right answer, peasy, so a yay!

However, I was inspired to ask this question when the Maven and I discovered, after umpteen years of marriage, that in my experience, the arachnid was "itsy-bitsy," but he'd always known it as "inky-dinky." (I'm convinced that's a regionalism peculiar to a certain area on the U.S. east coast.)

I started to do some research on this and was astonished by the variations ....

Y-e-e-e-s, inky-dinky, in my experience, refers to 'a very dark person'.......Morbid personality perhaps? ;)

It might have something to do with geography but I'm in complete agreement with Peasy ... incy-wincy is correct.

"The itsy-bitsy spider climbed--" I learned it in school or from Sesame Street. I have never even heard it any other way...

Poor spider, I've never described him correctly in my life.