fuggedaboudit, frog and toe

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>>FROG AND TOE
>>    This was an old nickname for New York City.  It means "cops and
>>robbers."  Not in the database.
>Hmm.  No relation to William Steig's characters of almost the same
>name?  Not a reduction of "Frog and Toad", in other words?  (I can't
>imagine what the connection with cops and robbers would be, but
>that's true for "Frog and Toe" as well.

Who says it means "cops and robbers"?

"Frog" = "foot", from standard "frog" meaning part of a horse's foot.

"Frog and toe" is like "heel and toe", which is used verbally (often with
"it") like "go"/"make tracks"/"book"/"depart"/"move quickly"/"flee";
perhaps "heel-and-toe [it]" is the model for the more current "hightail
[it]". BTW, "heel-and-toe" would seem to be basically a reference to
dancing, parallel to recent synonymous "boogie" perhaps.

1859 citation from F&H may show the development: "Coves, let us
frog-and-toe, coves, let us go to New York." Here "frog-and-toe" would seem
to mean "go [to New York]"; it reads pretty well with "frog-and-toe"
replaced with "hightail it" or "boogie", but perhaps the broader context
would change this impression.

Partridge shows "Frog and Toe" for "London" (1857), supposedly based on
thieves going to London (probably returning to London in many cases, with
their ill-gotten gains for fencing I suppose).

So "Frog and Toe" means the city to which one hurries after his crimes. At
least this is the superficial sense; the actual etymology may be more
complex or even entirely different (e.g., from "Frog and Toad" = "road"
extended to mean the place to which all roads lead).

"Frog and toad" is rhyming slang for "road", and there may be a 'pun' here.
If one heel-and-toes it, what is the "it"? The road, I guess; so it was the
road which was *frog-and-toed* too, maybe. At a glance, I don't find "frog
and toe it" (except on the Web) but it looks likely by analogy; I do find
"frog it" in the same sense or so from 1833 (RHHDAS) [and also "hoof it"
(1685)]. "Hit the frog and toe" is given as Australian slang on the Web but
perhaps it was originally "hit the frog and toad" = "hit the road".

-- Doug Wilson