"frog" for "French"/"Frenchman"

Mark Kronauer: What is the origin of the word "frog" when used as a slang term for "French" or "Frenchman"?
Terry O'Connor: English people and French people have long been enemies, culturally, militarily and commercially. In fact the two countries have almost been at war more often than at peace. (Well, not really, but it sometimes seems that way when you browse the history books.) So insults between the two nations are common. The French have described the English as a nation of shopkeepers and the English have described the French as a nation of frog-eaters. So, boil it down over the years and "frog-eaters" becomes frogs or froggies. N'est pas?
RICHARD YOUNG: The story I heard was that this term dated from the middle ages, when the French flag had a blue background with gold fleur-de-lys on it. The ignorant English, not knowing that the fleur-de-lys was supposed to be a flower, though that it represented a gold frog. Hence "frog" became a derogatory term for the French.

Now I must admit that I had always thought that, the term 'frog' had come from the fact that the Brtits lived on an Island surrounded by a salty sea, and the french lived on, well, swampland, with frogs aplenty.

The talking heads mouth, "I plead ignorance".




Perhaps I can eat cake.