frog

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A small, smooth-skinned animal with long back legs that lives in or near water and jumps.

   A green frog jumped into the pond.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Frog is recorded from Old English, although the source gives no earlier linguistic ancestry for the animal name. Its use in “a frog in the throat” developed from an older sense referring to a soreness or swelling in the mouth or throat. The decorative fastening called a frog is probably unrelated and has an unknown origin.

From Middle English frogge, from Old English frocga, from Proto-West Germanic *froggō (“frog”). Cognate with Old Norse frauki, and Old English frox, frosc, whence Modern English frosh and frosk (“frog”). Possibly related to Saterland Frisian Poage (“frog”), German Low German Pogg, Pogge (“frog”). Sense 5 (organ on a horse's hoof) is a calque of Ancient Greek βάτραχος (bátrakhos).

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary