Polliwogs

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Aquatic tadpoles, often found in freshwater, are the early developmental stages of amphibians that lack limbs and possess elongated bodies
2. These juvenile forms of frogs and toads are typically characterized by their aquatic nature and elongated shapes before they mature
3. The larval form of amphibians that live in water and have not yet developed legs

Etymology: The word is built from "poll", an old English word meaning head, and "wiggle", the sort of wriggling motion a tadpole makes, with "wog" standing in for the wiggling head-and-tail shape. The result is a name that describes the creature by its most visible feature: a bulging head that wriggles along behind. The form has a fondly regional, folksy ring to it, and it is most common in American English, where it sits alongside "tadpole" and other local names for the same animal. Many older speakers used "polliwog" as their everyday word, while the more widely used "tadpole" came to dominate in standard usage.

Synonyms: tadpoles