Umh, why? Isn’t this taking “you are what you eat” to a bit of an extreme?
Why do you think that in the superb British television program “Chef!”, the English cooks are derisively referred to as “Roast Beef”?
I’ve had frog legs, they can be very good when prepared properly. Never had snails, though. (relevance factor: 0.5%)
WAG: The first two letters are the same and the English wanted something deragatory. Think how the French say “France” (include stereotypical accent). The two words sound kind of similar.
-Beeblebrox
“In those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were REAL men, women were REAL women, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were REAL small furry creatures from Aplha Centauri.”
Unbelievably good. I am no gourmand, but I still, ten years later, have wet dreams about my one and only serving of escargot.
That having been said: they are frogs because they jump at the merest sound, they think a dip in a scum-covered pond constitutes bathing, and their women don’t shave properly.
My analogy is exquisite. Do not be so foolish as to dispute it.
I beg to differ on escargot - they put one in mind of a blob of bubble gum that was left on the sidewalk. The only saving grace is that the actual flavor is pretty much the garlic they’ve been sauteed in, which isn’t too bad.
Gahan Wilson cartoon - couple in a resturaunt, with a sign in the background saying “try our frog legs”. They are staring down in consternation at an amputee frog sitting on a little cart glaring back up at them.
As to the etymology - note that good derogatory terms don’t require anything but the most tenous whisp of reality. “frog” is particularly attractive because it is one of the few we are still allowed to use with impunity. I shudder to think what will happen if the tacit OK on making fun of the French ever falls to the forces of PC.
Or until more people like me start getting their hands on people like FarmerOak.
–sublight.
French, damn proud of it, and starting to get pissed off.
I’m no expert on the etymology of ethnic slurs, but I thought the derisory name “frogs” referred to the Freanch accent. That is, a Frenchman sounds like a fellow with a cold, the proverbial “frog in his throat,” when speaking.
We’ve been through this a few times before,
The French and the Frogs…
and
Why are the French called ‘Frogs’?
and the people who actually study language seem to think that “frog” was a generic insult and that the association with froglegs was a later attribution or folk etymology.
Thanks, Tom. I’m not 100% confident there was a General Question here, but if there was, the answer is almost certainly there in your post.