tadpole [LME] Although we primarily think of tadpoles as infant frogs, etymologically they are toads, the word coming from early forms of toad (see toady) and poll [ME] ‘head’, source of poll in the sense of an election, originally a head count [E17th], and poll tax [L17th]. This is probably because the proportionally large head is the most striking thing about tadpoles. The other striking thing is the wiggly tail, which gave the alternative Middle English names pollywiggle and pollywog, still found in regional Englishes and based on poll and wiggle.