bloody noun

English

Etymology

From "blood 'n' 'oun's", from "blood and wounds". Several sources, including Harrison Garman's 1892 A Synopsis of the Reptiles and Amphibians of Illinois, say the frog is so called because "its peculiar bass notes […] have a fancied resemblance to the expression" blood and wounds and other similar-sounding and similarly imposing phrases like "be drowned".

Noun

bloody noun (plural bloody nouns)

1. (US dialects, now rare) The bullfrog, or the sound made by it.
   • 1850, Edgar Allan Poe, Why the Little Frenchman Wears His Hand in a Sling:

     "Ye little spalpeeny frog of a bog-throtting son of a bloody noun!"

   • 1868, F. O. S., of Shreveport, Louisiana, quoted in The Land We Love: A Monthly Magazine; V. 1-6; May 1866-Mar. 1869, page 165:

     The big fellow was not there, but a keen-eyed little bull-frog had taken his place and he seemed to comprehend the situation at a glance. For he set up the croak, Bloody nouns, played out! played out!! PLAYED OUT!!!

   • 1898, Henry George, The Science of Political Economy, book 2, page 62, quoting a Philadelphia boy:

     "Bloody nouns are the big ones."

     […]

     *A name given by boys in Philadelphia to large bullfrogs.

Alternative forms

• bloody-noun, bloodynoun