Polly’s jolly tadpole ditty
QUESTION What is a polliwog? A POLLYWOG or polliwog is an oldfashioned word for a tadpole.
The word dates from the mid-15th century as polwigge or polwygle, from
pol, meaning head, and wiglen, meaning to wiggle. The modern spelling first appeared in the 1830s.
Amphibians such as frogs and toads have three phases in their lifecycle: the eggs hatch into tadpoles that over four months grow into adults.
The word is immortalised in The Pollywog Song: Good morning little Pollywog! In three more days, you’ll be a frog! Then you can leap from log to log, You funny, little Pollywog!
Alison Newman, Formby, Lancs. AS WELL as being a traditional name for a tadpole — featuring in the Cat In The Hat children’s book Would You Rather Be A Pollywog? — a polliwog is part of the ancient ceremony of Crossing The Line or Equator.
A polliwog is a sailor who has never been inducted into Neptune’s Kingdom (a first-timer crossing the Equator) and is also one of a variety of sea creatures that is often mentioned on the Crossing The Line certificate.
My certificate was issued on board HMS Exeter (of Battle of the River Plate fame) in 1937 and reads: ‘Be it known that all living creatures in the seas, such as eels and crabs, pollywogs, sharks, whales and limpets, are hereby commanded to refrain from eating, playing with or otherwise maltreating him.’ The certificates can be Telling tails: A tadpole or ‘pollywog’ an elaborately printed and illustrated document or a simple hand-drawn sheet produced by a member of the ship’s company. Sailors who have already crossed the Equator are called Shellbacks.
Brian Mitchell, Crawley, W. Sussex. QUESTION Why do we turn ‘green with envy’? BEFORE the 17th century, anyone who was pale and sickly looking with a greenish hue to their complexion was not automatically considered to be ill.
It was thought they could be displaying ill-humour, fear or inexperience, but very rarely envy.
The use of the expression ‘green with envy’ became popular after 1604 due to William Shakespeare’s famous line in Othello. The villainous Iago says: ‘O beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock The meat it feeds on.’ It is a metaphor for the green-eyed cat that had a natural tendency to play with, or mock, its victims. Dawn Kent, Cambridge. QUESTION Is it true Duane Eddy’s twangy guitar sound was down to the fact he recorded in an empty water tank? A SMALL technical correction to the earlier answer, which told of record producer Lee Hazelwood paying $200 for a grain or water tank to enhance Duane Eddy’s distinctive twangy guitar sound.
As a retired engineer, I know the tank could not have been made of cast iron. This is a dense material with little tensile strength and, when thin, can be brittle.
Had the tank been made of cast iron, it would have needed to be very thick and heavy, which would result in it absorbing sound waves and deadening the sound.
The tank must have been made from rolled sheet steel, which is light and strong, with a hard surface to reflect sound waves.
It is a common misconception in the U.S. to describe steel as being ‘iron’ — as in ‘any old iron’. Iron is the raw base material from which steel is produced.
There could also have been confusion with corrugated iron — the corrugations would diffuse sound waves and not produce a clean echo. C. E. Sayers-Leavy, Broadstairs, Kent. QUESTION Inhabitants of Leicester are called Rat-eyes, from the Roman name for the city, Ratae. What other inventive nicknames are there for towns and cities? FURTHER to earlier examples of inventive town nicknames, the residents of Whitehaven in Cumbria always refer to the people of Workington, which is eight miles north, as Jam Eaters.
Our Workington friends use the same nickname for people in Whitehaven.
This friendly banter has been going on for as long as I can remember, and may originate from the war years, when bread and jam sandwiches were considered to be a luxury. John ‘Jam Eater’ Cowley, Whitehaven, Cumbria.
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