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A frog in my throat

Posted by Victoria S Dennis on May 12, 2005

In Reply to: A frog in my throat posted by Carrie on May 12, 2005

: Where does the saying "I have a frog in my throat" come from?

: It used to be thought that if you drank water from a pond that had frogspawn in, a frog could live and hatch out in your throat, which naturally would block your voice. Quacksalvers (that's the traditional English equivalent of snake oil merchants) used to have a scam whereby the quack's stooge used to pretend to be so afflicted; the quack would administer his medicine, lo and behold the stooge would cough up a live frog and "regain his voice", and all the gullible peasants would buy this wonderful cure. For this reason, an obstruction in the throat is known as a "frog".

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