Why “Frogs”? Our pet name for the French. (I HAVE A NUMBER OF OTHER CHOICE NAMES FOR THE FRENCH.

National Review Online ^ | 1-12-05 | John J. Miller

[BMC1]

Is it really so bad to refer to an entire nation of people as frogs?

Last summer, when I was giving a speech on Franco-American relations — shortly before the publication of Our Oldest Enemy: A History of America's Disastrous Relationship with France — I made a frog joke. It involved a stuffed pig, a barbeque, and, well, you sort of had to be there. But it was definitely a quip about the French. The audience snickered, though a few people exchanged nervous glances. They clearly wondered if it was appropriate to laugh when somebody referred to the French as frogs.

Lighten up, I thought. Think about it: If we aimed to insult, truly and deeply and venomously, then we could skip right over cute green amphibians and compare the French to the frogs' warty cousins, the toads. Or, in honor of Pepe LePew (as well as international perceptions about French bathing habits), we could call them skunks. Or we might allude to something else entirely and call them chickens. Or maybe even cheese-eating surrender monkeys.

Given this range of name-calling options, what's so bad about frogs as a national nickname? The good people at Texas Christian University don't consider frogs a derisive word. Their sports teams are called the Horned Frogs. Go Frogs!

As it happens, frogs have thin skins — and so do the French.

[Gorzaloon]

Maybe it is because they eat garden pests...?

I had a frog living in my koi pond. Every evening my wife and I would sit on the little bench and feed the fish. Something about the pitch of my voice turned the frog on, and as I spoke to my wife, the frog would constantly interrupt me.

So I developed a ritual, where I would say, "Bonjour, Monsieur le Grenouille!", and the frog would dutifully croak...every time!!!

This went on for at least a month.

We had a family cookout for the Fourth. "Hey! Everyone" Come and see the talking frog!!!! It's true! Every night I talk to him and he answers me!!'

So everyone came down to the pond.

"Bonjour, Monsieur le Grenouille!".

.......Silence...........

"Bonjour, Monsieur le Grenouille!"

....Silence......

People began drifting away.

Basically it's this: He BETRAYED ME!

[OB1kNOb]

I tink it came from Minnesoda where day shoot da turdy point bucks !!

[talosiv]

Croaked !

You get the "I need a new keyboard" award.

-R

[Mark in the Old South]

Frog eating is my understanding of the origin as well. I also understand the French call the English (& all Anglos) Roast beef for the same reason. How that is supposed to insult me I still haven't figured out?

[TommyDale]

Okay, I give up. Why would I need a new keyboard?

[hushpad]

Their sports teams are called the Horned Frogs. Go Frogs!


Really? I thought that would be "Horned Toads", something Texas used to have plenty of.

[mysto]

Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys has to be one of my all time favorites
Mine too... but I like to call them cheese-eating, wine-drinking, America-hating surrender monkeys... a few extra adjectives can't hurt.

[ken5050]

Actually, it goes back to the amazing success that French men had with English women, Englishmen couldn't understand it, until one wag noted that the French male is just like a frog, he sits there stupidly licking his eyebrows..

[bert]

He might be right. Maybe we should use the "F(r)" word to be PC.

[Junior]

No mention of the most probable derivation of the word: The British coined the term "WOG" (Westernized Oriental Gentleman) to describe upper class natives of some of their colonies -- or at least those upper class natives who had the foresight to attend western schools and adopt western culture. The British also had a saying, "All WOGs start at Calais," indicating the British belief in the inferiority of all non-British. "Frog" is simply a concatenation of "French WOG."

[Junior]

A scuttlebutt was a water cask aboard ship. Sailors would stand around it (much like office workers around the water cooler today) exchanging gossip.

[IamConservative]

Two more good ones..

"The whole nine yards" - World War II fighter plane - the P51 perhaps - carried 27 feet of ammo for each gun. When they returned empty, the flight crew would say: "I see you gave'em the whole nine yards."

"Rule of Thumb" - refers to an old British law wherein a man could beat his wife if he used a switch no larger than his thumb. (This may be where the East German womens Olympic team got their start. :)

[bert]

OK..... what's red and green and red and green and red and green?

A Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey in a blender...

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

I was in Paris waiting on a Visa when the US said they were not going to allow the Concorde to land in very many places in the States and I think the US pulled money from the Concorde project.
Any one could tell I was an American.
I was trying to eat breakfast and the french would come over to my table, puff their chest out and pull their neck down between their shoulders.
I then understood why they were called frogs.

They would stick a french newspaper in my face and started speaking through their nostrils.
I would stand up and look mean at these ill mannered crud.
They would leave and a little later another frog would do the same thing.

I did look up French and frog on the web but I like my answer better.

[Lion in Winter]

I think the whole nine yards is older than WWII. I remember my Grandad using the phrase and he died in 1938.

[~Peter]

"If a Frenchman is capable of real friendship, it must certainly be the most disagreeable present he can possibly make to a man of a true English character, ..."

1763 - Travels Through France and Italy - Tobias Smollett