Frog¹

Forms: 1 frogga, 2–7 frogge, 4 frock, 5 froke, (4 froge, 5 frugge), 7 frogg, 5– frog. Pl. 2 froggen, 3 wroggen. [OE. frogga wk. masc.; a hypocoristic formation (peculiar to Eng.), from the root contained in the various Teut. synonyms, of which there are three different types: (1) OE. frox, (*frosc), forsc str. masc. (see FROSH) = Du. vorsch, OHG. forsk (MHG. vorsch, mod.G. frosch), ON. frosk-r:—OTeut. *frosko-z; (2) ME. frūde, FROUD, frog or toad, related by ablaut to ON. frauð-r, OSw. pl. frødhir (Da. frö); cf. OF. froit, frot toad, which is perh. of Scandinavian origin; (3) ON. frauke, whence perh. the ME. froke, given among the forms of the present word.

  The etymological relation between the various Teut. words involves some unsolved difficulties. Some scholars, on the ground of OE. frogga, and ON. frauke, assume a root ending in a guttural, and explain OTeut. *frosko- as = *froh-sko-. This does not account for the ME. frūde, ON. frauð-r, and hence it has been suggested that the common root of all the words id frud- (frod-), fraud-, frūd-; OTeut. frud- + suffix -ko- would by phonetic law become *frosko-; the ON. frauke appears to be for *frauðke. With regard to OE. frogga it may be remarked that the ending -gga occurs in several other names of animals: cf. stagga, docga, wicga. It is possible that frogga may owe its form to the analogy of other animal names with this termination.

  1.  A tailless amphibious animal of the genus Rana, or, in wider sense, of the family Ranidæ.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv. (Norfolk. c. 1440) explains frogge, frugge as meaning ‘toad’ (bufo), while the forms froke and frosche are said to mean ‘frog’ (rana). It is not known whether this distinction was recognised in the Norfolk dialect of the time; modern East Anglian glossaries do not mention it.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 122/10. Rana, frogga. Ibid. (c. 1000), Hom., II. 192. He afylde eal heora land mid froggum.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 51. Þer wunieð in-ne … ȝeluwe froggen and crabben.

1297.  R. Glouc. (1724), 69. For it alles com forþ, yt was a foul frogge.

a. 1300.  Vox & Wolf, 256. Wroggen haueth his dou iknede.

13[?].  M. E. Glosses, in Rel. Ant., I. 80. Frock, reyne.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), IV. 397. Þey … made hym unwitynge drinke a frogge.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 180/1. Froke or frosche … rana.

1486.  Bk. St. Albans, Civ b. Yeue hir a frogge for to eete.

1555.  Eden, Decades, Pref. (Arb.), 53. Beware therefore leaste whyle thou contemne the peaceable princes that god hath sent the, thou bee lyke vnto Isopes frogges to whom for theyr vnquietnesse, Iupiter sent a hearon to picke them in the hedes.

1605.  Shaks., Macb., IV. i. 14.

1653.  Walton, Angler, vii. 145. The Pike will eat venemous things (as some kind of Frogs are).

1698.  G. Thomas, Pennsylv. (1848), 16. There is another sort of Frog that crawls up to the tops of Trees, there seeming to imitate the Notes of several Birds.

1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), VII. 73. The frog … can live several days under water, without any danger of suffocation.

1802.  Bingley, Anim. Biog. (1813), II. 395, heading. The Edible Frog.

1840.  Hood, Up the Rhine, 129. Amongst the fossils is a complete series of frogs.

  b.  In various proverbial expressions.

1548.  Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. John, Pref. 4. The whiche peraduenture will … saye y^t I geue frogges wine, as the Greke prouerbe speaketh.

a. 1555.  Latimer, in Foxe, A. & M. (1684), III. 413. Well, I have fished and caught a Frog; brought little to pass with much ado.

1603.  Dekker, Grissil, V. i. Old M[aster] you haue fisht faire and caught a frog.

1823.  Lockhart, Reg. Dalton, VI. i. (1842), 345. Whose coat was as bare of nap as a frog’s is of feathers.

  2.  Applied to certain animals more or less resembling frogs, e.g., the FROG-FISH or ANGLER 2.

1769.  Pennant, Zool. (1776), III. 106. I have changed the old name of Fishing Frog to the more simple one of Angler.

1855.  Ogilvie, Suppl., Frog, Frog-fish. Names sometimes applied to a British fish (Lophius piscatorius), the angler.

1885.  T. Roosevelt, Hunting Trips, vi. 191. The horned frog is not a frog at all, but a lizard.

  3.  As a term of abuse applied to a man or woman. Also, † a Dutchman.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 1782. Formest was sire Gogmagog, He was most, þat foule froge.

1535.  Lyndesay, Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits, 2136. Ane Frog that fyles the winde.

1626.  L. Owen, Spec. Jesuit. (1629), 54. These infernall frogs [Jesuits] are crept into the West and East Indyes.

1652.  Season. Exp. Netherl., 2. Neither had I ever wished the charming of those Froggs [the Dutch], but that I see them so ready to become an Egyptian plague unto us, by croaking against us in our own Waters.

  4.  A name given to certain diseases of the throat or mouth.

1656.  Ridgley, Pract. Physick, 174. The Frog—It is a swelling under the Tongue that is common to children.

1748.  trans. Renatus’ Distemp. Horses, 235. Little Frogs, Pushes or Swellings in the Tongues of Oxen.

1876.  C. C. Robinson, Mid-Yorksh. Gloss., Frog-i’-t’-mouth, a popular name for the complaint known as the thrush.

1885.  Syd. Soc. Lex., Frog, the thrush, or aphthous stomatitis, of infants.

  5.  = frog-stool.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. cviii. (Tollem. MS.). Yf it is doo amonge frogges [1535 frogge stoles: Lat. fungos] & venemouse meetes, it … quencheþ all þe venym.

  6.  Brickmaking. (See quot.)

1876.  Sir E. Beckett, Bk. Build., 162. Making bricks with a hollow in one or both faces which I have heard absurdly called a frog.

  7.  attrib. and Comb. a. attributive, as frog-color, -concert, -green, -kind, -pit, -tribe; frog-like adj.; b. objective, as frog-fishing; c. parasynthetic, as frog-colored, -hearted, -voiced adjs.

1836.  B. D. Walsh, Aristoph., Knights, I. iii. Died himself *Frog-colour.

1817.  Coleridge, Biog. Lit., 238. Many of the faces round me assumed a very doleful and *frog-coloured appearance.

1837.  Ht. Martineau, Soc. Amer., II. 184. The distracting din was like nothing earthly. It presently struck me that we were being treated with a *frog-concert. It is worth hearing, for once, anything so unparalleled as the knocking, ticking, creaking, and rattling, in every variety of key.

1889.  Century Dict., *Frog-fishing, the act or practice of fishing for frogs with hook, line, and rod; frogging.

1890.  Daily News, 20 Nov., 2/1. The small bonnet … is in *frog-green velvet.

1846.  E. FitzGerald, Lett. (1889), I. 160. Don’t put me out of your books as a *frog-hearted wretch.

1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), VI. 97. The *Frog kind.

1561.  Daus, trans. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573), 225 b. By their complaintes, accusations, writings and disputations altogether froggelyke and fenlyke, they be hatefull both to God and men.

1842.  S. Lover, Handy Andy, xix. 176. As loud as his frog-like voice permitted.

1615.  J. Stephens, Satyr. Ess., A viij b. They that take From puddles or dull *Frog-pits, never make Themselves nor others happy.

1849–52.  R. B. Todd, The Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology, IV. 1213/1. The larva, resembling in appearance a *frog-tadpole.

1851.  Carpenter, Man. Phys. (ed. 2), 396. The *Frog tribe, which forms the lowest order of Reptiles.

1799.  Coleridge, Lett. (1895), 308. You ill-looking *frog-voiced reptile!

  8.  Special comb.: frog-back, a ‘back’ at leap-frog; frog-catcher (see quot.); frog-clock, ? = frog-hopper; frog-crab, a member of the crustaceous genus Ranina; frog-dance, ? a kind of hornpipe in which the performer crouches down in a froglike attitude; frog-eater, one who eats frogs, a term contemptuously applied to Frenchmen; so frog-eating ppl. a.; frog-hopper, a group of homopterous insects of the family Cercopidæ, so called from their shape and leaping powers; frog’s hornpipe (see frog-dance); † frog-paddock, a large kind of frog; frog-pecker, a heron; frog-pike, frog-plate, frog-shell (see quots.); frog-spit, -spittle, (a) = CUCKOO-SPIT² 1: (b) = frog-spawn; frog-tongue (see quot.).

a. 1861.  Mrs. Browning, Lett. R. H. Horne (1877), II. 258. Everybody was bound to run at the ‘*frog-back’ given, and do his best.

1796.  Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 212. Quaw bird or *Frog Catcher, Ardea clemata.

1653.  W. Lauson, Comm. J. D[ennys] Secr. Angling, in Arb., Garner, I. 196. The same is the reason of the flood; washing down worms, flies, *frog-clocks, &c.

1879.  Rossiter, Dict. Sci. Terms, *Frog crab = Ranina: can climb trees, &c., found on islands in Indian Ocean.

1895.  Westm. Gaz., 30 Oct., 1/2. A ‘*frog-dance,’ cleverly executed by a budding barge-builder of seventeen.

1863.  G. Kearley, Links in Chain, viii. 179. M. de Lacépède was a *frog eater.

1889.  Century Dict., *Frog-eating.

1711.  Phil. Trans., XXVII. 351. The remaining Ranatræ, or *Froghoppers.

1857.  Livingstone, Trav., xxi. 416. A similar but much smaller homopterous insect, of the family Cercopidæ, is known in England as the frog-hopper (Aphrophora spumaria), when full grown and furnished with wings; but while still in the pupa state it is called ‘cuckoo-spit,’ from the mass of froth in which it envelops itself.

1844.  Dickens, Mart. Chuz., xi. A dancing step … commonly called the *Frog’s Hornpipe.

1653.  Walton, Angler, vii. 151. The green Frog … is by Topsel taken to be venemous; and so is the Padock, or *Frog-Padock, which usually keeps or breeds on the land.

1825.  Scott, Betrothed, xxiii. I will shew you one of these *frog-peckers.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Frog-pike, a female pike, so called from its period of spawning being late, contemporary with the frogs.

1867.  J. Hogg, Microsc., I. ii. 110. A *Frog-plate for viewing the circulation of the blood in the web of a frog’s foot.

1855.  Ogilvie, Suppl., *Frog-shell. The name applied to various species of shells of the genus Ranella.

a. 1825.  Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, *Frog-spit.

1855.  Ogilvie, Suppl., Cuckoo-spittle or *frog-spittle (Aphrophora spumaria).

1822–34.  Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), I. 94. The Ranula or *frog-tongue, is a tumour under the tongue.

  b.  In various plant-names, as frog-bit, (a) Hydrocharis Morsus-ranæ, an aquatic plant; (b) Limnobium Spongia, a similar plant of America; frog-cheese, (a) (see quot. 1866); (b) Malva sylvestris (cf. CHEESE sb.¹ 5); frog(’s-foot, duckweed (Lemna); frog-grass, (a) = CRAB-GRASS 1; † (b) Juncus bufonius; frog’s lettuce, water caltrops, Potamogeton densus; frog-orchis (see quots.); † frog-parsley, some plant (? = fools’ parsley); frog-stool = TOADSTOOL; frog-wort, a name given to species of Orchis.

1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, I. lxxi. 106. The thirde [kind of floating weeds] … is called … *Frogge bitte.

1737.  Compl. Fam.-Piece, II. iii. 374. In the Water Tubs, the yellow Nymphea or Water Lilly, Water Ranunculus, Pond-weeds, the Flamula or Spearwort, and Frogbits.

1866.  Treas. Bot., Frog-bit. American, Limnobium.

1868.  Nat. Encycl., I. 659. One of the Frogbit tribe of plants.

1818.  Withering’s Brit. Plants (ed. 6), IV. 453. Lycoperdon … *Frogcheese.

1866.  Treas. Bot., Frog-cheese. A name applied occasionally to the larger puff-balls when young.

1529.  Grete Herbal, cclix. P i. Lentylles of the water ben called *frogges fote.

1863.  Prior, Plant-n., 87. Frog-foot, lemna.

1597.  *Frog grasse [see CRAB-GRASS 1].

1640.  Parkinson, Theat. Bot., Index, 1738. Frogge grasse or Toadegrass. Ibid., II. lviii. 281. The people that dwell neare it by the Sea side, call it Frogge grasse or Crab grasse.

1861.  Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., IV. 385. Glass-wort is sometimes called … Frog-grass.

1597.  Gerard, Herball, II. ccxcviii. 824. Small water Caltrops or *Frogs lettuce.

1840.  Paxton, Bot. Dict., *Frog-orchis, see Gymnadenia viridis.

1861.  Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., V. 214. Green Habenaria … sometimes called … Frog Orchis.

1651.  J. F[reake], Agrippa’s Occ. Philos., xviii. 41. Sheep fly from *Frog-parsley as from some deadly thing.

1535.  *Frogge-stoles [see 1398 quot. in FROG sb.¹ 5].

1661.  Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 144. The dung helps against Frogstooles with wine and vineger.

1865.  Science Gossip, 1 Nov., 258. In Dorsetshire poisonous fungi are often called ‘Frogstools.’

a. 1824.  Holdich, Ess. Weeds (1825), 65. Man-orchis, Red-lead and *Frogwort are the only English names we have heard given to these weeds in damp pastures.

  c.  In names of games, as frog-in-the-middle, frog over an old dog. Also LEAP-FROG.

1801.  Strutt, Sports & Past., IV. iv. 347. Another [game] equally well known with us, and called frog in the middle.

1847–78.  Halliwell, Frog over an old dog, leap-frog, list of games, Rawl. MS.