Why are the French called "frogs"?

ironick · October 10, 2001, 4:42am

If there’s anyone out there who can tell me why the French are referred to as “frogs”, I’d really appreciate knowing. Someone told me that the French prince who tried to woo Elizabeth I was nicknamed “Froggy” and the English then began to call all French “frogs”, but I’m not sure on the accuracy of this. Does anyone know?

achterover · October 10, 2001, 4:48am

Frog: It’s what’s for dinner.

“Frogs” is really short for “frog-eaters.” It refers to the English distaste of French menu selections.

don_t_ask · October 10, 2001, 4:54am

Not according to this site.

Dignan · October 10, 2001, 5:09am

I learned something, I thought that “frogs” just referred to the French-Canadians.

It’s kind of ironic that the English would criticize another culture’s culinary tastes.

Not that I’m familiar with English cuisine, I’m just going off stereotypes.

achterover · October 10, 2001, 5:14am

learning what I had always assumed about the etymology is wrong or the guy in the link’s fetish-like amphibial descriptions

Katisha · October 10, 2001, 5:35am

Well, the roughly analogous term would be the French les rosbifs, which pokes fun at the English for their love of beef. Because it’s vaguely relevant, I’ll reproduce for you my all-time favorite footnote to a Shakespeare play:

fat bull-beeves The association of the English with beef, particularly in the context of a nationalistic assertion of masculinity and courage, is long-standing. The Elizabethan army received a ration, every seventh day, of two pounds of salt beef or two and a half pounds of fresh (Cruikshank, 88). Whether in this play, in Hogarth’s eighteenth-century painting The Roast Beef of Old England or in the present-day (1999) journalistic response to continental worries about the dangers of British beef infected by BSE, beef is a marker of the line between England and France. The French term les rosbifs for the English is still at the time of writing just about current, though perhaps rather camp. ‘Beef-witted’ (Nashe, 1.370.18; TC 2.1.12) is not a compliment, even in English.
(1 Henry VI, Arden edn., 1.2.9n.)

Actually, we had a thread like this a while back, but it seems to be gone now – I ran a search and couldn’t find it. The general agreement was that the culinary explanation is probably the correct one.

sirjamesp · October 10, 2001, 7:45am

Calling the French “frogs” because they eat frogs-legs is almost certainly correct.

We also call the Germans “krauts” as they eat sauerkraut, and Americans “Big Mac with large fries and a Coke”. OK, maybe not the last one.

We are a charming group of people, the English.

daffodil · October 10, 2001, 9:17am

What about the people from Hamburg, or Frankfurt?

Denmark?

Floater · October 10, 2001, 9:27am

I refuse to eat turnips.

RAWisSYDNEY · October 10, 2001, 10:01am

A) Frankfurts
B) Hamburgers

daffodil · October 10, 2001, 10:47am

** Okay! **

:confused

tomndebb · October 10, 2001, 11:52am

Since everyone seems to be jumping on the “frog eater” bandwagon, I’d just like to point out that the issue is not that clear (as a brief search of this Forum notes).