Frogs.

Frenchmen, properly Parisians. So called from their ancient heraldic device, which was three frogs or three toads. “Quʹen disent les grenouilles?”—What will the frogs (people of Paris) say?—was in 1791 a common court phrase at Versailles. There was a point in the pleasantry when Paris was a quagmire, called Luteʹtia (mud-land) because, like frogs or toads, they lived in mud, but now it is quite an anomaly. (See Crapaud.)

Frogs. The Lycian shepherds were changed into frogs for mocking Latoʹna. (Ovid: Metamorphoses, vi. 4.)

“As when those hinds that were transformed to frogs

Railed at Latona’s twin-born progeny.”

Milton: Sonnet, vii.

It may be all fun to you, but it is death to the frogs. The allusion is to the fable of a boy stoning frogs for his amusement.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.