Cappy

Ginger old top: But how many years had those Vikings, who translated into Normans in a territory called Normandie, lived their before they invaded Blighty in 1066, and pray, sir, what kind of names and language did they use? Weren't they French names like Bois Guilbert and Richard Coeur de Lion, etc, and didn't they all parle francais?

Billy,your forgetting,about,when the Europeans,
invaded the Native Americans.
Baron vonTecumseh

Monsieur Xavier: Pourquoi les anglais utilisé le mot 'frog' (grenouille) comme synonyme pour francais?

Baron: I didn't forget the N.A.s, because we were talking about the pour Frenchies being invaded so many times it spoiled their dispositions.
But since there really was no such thing as an homogenous territory called Native America and the tribal gene pools were so diverse, and the tribes were always invading each others homelands to steal horses and women, or counting coup, what the what men did was not that outrageous. Speak of invasions the Apaches used to invade Mexico regularly, and didn't Pancho Villa invade us in 1916. Who isn't guilty of this military sin? The Eskimos.

Billy,

"Monsieur Xavier: Pourquoi les anglais utilisé le mot 'frog' (grenouille) comme synonyme pour francais? "

I don't know, I've discovered that nickname here, perhaps one of those who've used it here could explain why...

Xavier Jouve

Billy and Xavier

I suspect the use of the word 'Froggy' to describe the French is at least as old as the Napoleonic Wars and probably earlier. I have an interest in that era and it seems to be a common slang at the time. It smacks of 'kraut' or 'Hun' US and UK slang for the Germans respectively. I mean no offence to my German colleagues - I'm just making a point.

Why? FR..oggy = FR..enchy - it sort of rhymes and probably the perception in England that the French eat large amounts of frog's legs.

What do you reckon?

[Ginger.]

Gordon,
another nickname of that period for Johnie Frenchman was'Old Trousers.'
Billy H.
you are an obvious expert on the Vikings.Do you know what a Viking did if he had a problem?

I suppose ever since Adam and Eve,went east of
Eden to the land of Nod(Cleveland) ,Man has invaded
one place or another.My point is American history
didn,t start in 1492,but in the garden of Eden.
Holy Toledo! Baron vonTecumseh

I suppose ever since Adam and Eve,went east of
Eden to the land of Nod(Cleveland) ,Man has invaded
one place or another.My point is American history
didn,t start in 1492,but in the garden of Eden.
Holy Toledo! Baron vonTecumseh

Hi All,
I'm sure - in the absence of any better ideas - that we call our French friends, 'Frogs' because of their bizarre eating habits. After all, we are, 'les rosbifs' because all we can eat is roastbeef and the Jerries are, 'krauts' due to their penchant for pickled cabbage and the Dutch, 'kasekopf' or 'cheesheads because of all the chewy cheese they inflict on us.. Must be why the Scots are called, 'Jocks' ( calm down guys, I jest).
Bis dann, aur revoir, toodle pip!
John.