# Yellow Bellies! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [May 4, 2003, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-bellies/173088 "2003-05-04T23:56:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aimz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@aimz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aimz)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2003, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-bellies/173088/1 "2003-05-04T23:56:12Z")
"Yellow and yellow-bellied haven’t always had a negative connotation. An earlier and completely different use of “yellow-bellies” apparently first arose in England as a humorous reference to residents of Lincolnshire, without the connotation of cowardly, as far as I can tell. The regimental flag had a yellow background, and frogs found in the fens were in fact yellow-bellied, so we find the term in print around 1796. It was a word like redcoats, meant as descriptive and humorous, slightly ridiculing. In the 1890s yellow-bellied was used in a literal sense to indicate fish, such as sole and flounder, that have light-colored undersides. " Thaks for this!! I was born in Lincolnshire and had always wondered why my dad called me a yellow belly! I didn’t think he was calling me a coward, but its nice to know its not an insult! 😛 [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/myellowbellied.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/myellowbellied.html) ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2003, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-bellies/173088/2 "2003-05-05T00:46:02Z")
The **OED** says > [@](#): > > 1787 GROSE Provincial Gloss. s.v. Lincolnshire, Yellow bellies. This is an appellation given to persons born in the Fens, who, it is jocularly said, have yellow bellies, like their eels. There is a 1796 quote, but it also talks of “eels.” The frog idea is just people trying to improve their image. Frogs are evidently a step up from eels. 😃 Welcome to the Straight Dope. (I have a friend in Lincoln, and have visited your castle. It needs work. 🙂 )