Why is a Frog on a plane called a Frog?

[TWS]

Can anyone give me the reason a 'frog' is called a frog?

Thanks in advance, TWS

[Dave Balderstone]

Calling it a "toad" would make no sense at all, would it?

[PDQ]

"Frog" is probably a corruption of the word "froe" which means :a = cutting tool with one end of its blade fastened at right angles to a = short handle. Use: to split wood along the grain to make shingles or = barrel staves". Could also originate in the Anglo-Saxon word meaning = "from" as in "to remove shavings from".

--=20 PDQ

[Josh]

If he's flying first class, he's usually called "Sir" or "Mr. Frog".

Leonard Bailey, the original inventor, never mentions the name "Frog" in his patent in 1858. Later after Stanley bought him out, Traut patented an improved lateral adjustment where he mentions the "frog", but he gives no clue as to the origin of the term.

A horse's hoof has a wedge-shaped structure called a frog. Maybe it was the similarity in shape?

Josh

TWS wrote:

[CW]

They didn't think Aardvark sounded to good. :)

[George E. Cawthon]

Suggest you buy a good dictionary. The answer is there are all sorts of things call a frog that look similar. Most are a lump of something (like a frog squatting). The horses foot part is a good answer but it also is just a lump of something.

[RicodJour]

Because it looks like a frog sitting on its haunches.

[Lobby Dosser]

More likely to have come from railroad terminology. See about halfway down for 'frog'.

[todd]

Reminds me of when I was working as a mechanical engineer. We were working with a company in Memphis, TN on a steel part that was going to be forged. The company was Conley Frog and Switch. Not knowing rail terminology at the time, I thought it was an unusual name.

todd

[George E. Cawthon]

Railroading possibly made the term more common, but there were things called frogs long before railroads.

[Jeff Gorman]

Because it gets in your throat.

Jeff G

[Lobby Dosser]

Such as ...

[Bush Carpenter]

Perhaps ...

Part of a violin bow

Part of a horse-drawn mouldboard plough

Device to attach a sword/scabbard/bayonet/axe to a belt or sling

[Lobby Dosser]

The bit at the end? (not hand end)

Didn't know any of those.

Why do you suppose so many bits in so many different applications are called frog?

[C&S]

From webster's unabridged:

3 a (1) : a looped device attached to a belt for holding a weapon or tool (2) : a front fastening for a garment (as a coat, jacket, dress) that is made usually of braid in an ornamental looped design with a bar-shaped button or thick knot on one edge of the opening to fit into a loop on the other b : a device made of rail sections constructed and assembled to permit the wheels on one rail of a track to cross another rail of an intersecting track c : a shallow place for mortar in the upper face of a brick d : the frame or block to which the share, moldboard, landside, or beam of a plow are secured e : the nut of a violin bow : HEEL -- see BOW illustration f (1) : the junction of two branches of a flume (2) : a guiding timber at the mouth of a slide g : a device for supporting and mutually insulating trolley wires that cross each other h : the seat for the plane iron in the stock of a carpenter's plane i : a loom device that actuates a stop motion when the shuttle is out of position

[bob kater]

[CW]

Frogs. :)

[RicodJour]

Probably because they reminded people of a frog shape/form.

The typical scenario is for someone, unfamiliar with an item, to compare it to something that reminds them by some characteristic(s). The other common scenario is for someone to hear someone mention the item in question, and not knowing the correct spelling or pronounciation, morph the word into something that it sounded like or that they are more familiar with.

R

[EXT]

Also the wedge shape of a train rail switch, where one rail crosses another is called a frog.

[Anonymous]

hmmmm .. .. ..

WHY is a frog called a frog ?? ?? ??

EXT wrote: