2920: Tadpole Dec 19, 2024

The word ‘tadpole is as unrelated to ‘frog’, etymologically, as ‘cub’ does to ‘bear’, yet the connection isn’t as random. ‘Tadpole’ comes from Middle English ‘tadpolle’ that combines tadde, meaning ‘toad’ with ‘poll’, meaning ‘head’. The reason is pretty clear—they only appear to have the head and a fin in the early stage—but ‘poll’ as a word for head, there is simply no word like it now in English. ‘Poll’ in the sense of a tally of heads does exist, but this is no longer clearly linked to heads except metaphorically.

Cognates in a few rare dialectal forms of other Germanic languages, but those too have mostly faded. Rather it used to refer to any top or dome, from there it referred to the tops of trees—unrelated to 'pole'—and also took on the context of ‘head’ in certain places.