Reptiles and amphibians have never been as popular for pets as their furrier cousins. They aren't very popular as farm animals either. The only reptiles that I know of that are raised on farms for food are alligators in Florida and California. There are no true "working" reptiles or amphibians, although pythons are sometimes kept near West African homes to keep down the rodents, and black snakes are often allowed to live near corn cribs in the U.S. But popularity aside, for exotic impact reptiles can't be beaten!
The word, reptile, is a derivation of the Latin word, repere. Repere means to creep, which one does if one has very short legs like most reptiles. The major exception to short legs are the serpents. Serpere means to glide in Latin, which is what one does if one's short legs have become completely internalized or non-existent. A snake isn't all tail, incidentally: the cloaca or excretory opening marks where the tail begins.
Eden had an important snake in the grass, but we owe this expression to the Roman poet Virgil (70 - 19 B.C.), who presumably had never heard of Eden. Latet anquis in herba found its way into a 13th century political song in England, and finally made it into the English language in 1548: "But the serpent lurked under the grass, and under sugared speech was hidden pestiferous poison." (Edward Hall's Chronicles). The French have the snake under a rock: guelgue anguille sous roche.
"Deaf as an adder" comes not from Eden but from the Old Testament: "The wicked ... go astray ... Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear." (Psalms 58:3-4). The "her" refers to the adder. In Biblical times it was commonly believed certain snakes could protect themselves from snake charmers by sticking their tails in their ears and pressing the other against the ground. It was probably considered female at the time because many cultures associate snakes with fertility. Another possibility is that they were considered seductresses.
A saying that was around even earlier than grass snakes and deaf adders was "to nourish a viper in ones bosom." Aesop around 600 B.C. wrote a fable about a farmer who found a frozen snake. He felt sorry for it and put it inside his shirt to warm it up. As soon as it revived it bit and killed him (the snake probably refroze in the inclement weather). According to Aesop, the moral of that story is "The greatest benefits will not bind the ungrateful." A secondary moral, considering what probably happened to the snake, is "Don't bit the hand that feeds you!" I once put a garter snake in a box in the garage to take to my son's kindergarten class the next day. It got quite chilly that night, and the little snake was sluggish the next morning. When I held it to show the group of children, it warmed up and was very grumpy. It struck at but didn't bite one of the five-year-old's - very odd behavior for a garter snake!
"Snake juice" is Australian slang for whiskey. Imbibing snake juice probably made one snakey, which means bad tempered (like my garter snake!). You also might see snakes, which was a popular accusation around 1900 for people with delirium tremens.
The closest thing to a complimentary saying about snakes is "snake eyes", which is a descriptive throw of one pips on each of two dice. Snakes deserve better. They actually do quite a bit of good by keeping down the rodent and insect populations. Some snakes even keep down other more harmful snake populations. In fact the closest thing to a compliment that I could find about any other reptile was "lounge lizard", which is defined by Partridge (Smaller Slang Dictionary) as "a sleek adventurer frequenting lounges in the expectation of women, their money and caresses". Some people might consider that a compliment. It was first used in the United States in about 1925, but became obsolete in the 1960's.
A chameleon is a small lizard. Its name comes from Greek and means "dwarfed lion". Maybe they were fiercer back then! The Greeks also believed these little animals could live on air for long periods of time. Perhaps that is because they have very long, fast, accurate tongues that dart out and back quickly with their prey attached, too fast for an observer to see it eating.
"Polliwog" is another interesting name, but more fitting to the creature who bears it. Five hundred years ago the name was polwygle or poll, head, plus wygle or wiggle making it wigglyhead. Another name for the larval stage of frogs and toads is tadpole. The derivation is similar: tadde ("toad") and poll ("head").
A pollywog turns into a frog and if it lives long enough it may become the biggest frog in the puddle or pond. A person described as such is the most important person in a very small spot, but like his namesake usually makes a lot of noise advertising his presence. This expression has been around about 100 years. A derogatory term for Frenchmen is froggies, not because of their voices but rather that they are reputed to eat frogs (British sailors are sometimes called limeys because they used to eat limes when sailing to prevent scurvy). To give someone a frog's march is to carry out a drunken person face downward by four people, usually to jail. Such a person may be described as "drunk as a newt". Newts, being amphibians, can absorb water through their skins, which might have led to the expression. On the other hand it could be its sleek skin made it look tight, which is another slang term for drunk.
A close relative of the frog is the toad. From toads that often live in damp environs where mushrooms also grow, we get the term "toadstool", which was once "toad's hat", and padlocks. Toads were called pads in fifteenth century England and early padlocks probably reminded someone of toads.
I've come to the end of my first blog post. In medieval times, the crocodile was reputed to shed tears while devouring its victim, so crocodile tears refers to hypocritical grief. Is anyone weeping?
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