Frogs

Frenchmen, properly Parisians. So called from their ancient heraldic device, which was three frogs or three toads. “Quʹen disent les grenouilles?”—What will the frogs (people of Paris) say?—was in 1791 a common court phrase at Versailles. There was a point in the pleasantry when Paris was a quagmire, called Luteʹtia (mud-land) because, like frogs or toads, they lived in mud, but now it is quite an anomaly. (See Crapaud.)

Frogs. The Lycian shepherds were changed into frogs for mocking Latoʹna. (Ovid: Metamorphoses, vi. 4.)

“As when those hinds that were transformed to frogs

Railed at Latona’s twin-born progeny.”

Milton: Sonnet, vii.

It may be all fun to you, but it is death to the frogs. The allusion is to the fable of a boy stoning frogs for his amusement.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.