No flies on ADS' response to "frog march"

[Sam Clements]

Since the HDAS cites "frog" as a British term for a policeman from
1857/1859, and "Frog's March" from 1871 and later, why do we assume that the
term implied being marched like a frog instead of being marched BY frogs?
SC
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Fitzpatrick" <grendel.jjf at verizon.net>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, October 04, 2003 4:25 PM
Subject: No flies on ADS' response to "frog march"


Hop, Two, Three, Four: Frog-Marching Into the Lexicon
By David Montgomery
Washington Post  1 Oct
http://tinyurl.com/pq77

  Linguists are loving it. Wayne Glowka, chairman of the New Words Committee
for the American Dialect Society, was waking up to CNN yesterday when he
heard "frog-marched out of the White House," and he scribbled it down.
"Frog-march" will be a candidate for the society's annual list of new or
newly prominent expressions, he says.

  [Jesse Sheidlower, principal North American editor for the OED,] says
"frog-marched out of the White House" could even make the revised edition
now being assembled.

Seán Fitzpatrick
Upper Darby, PA