"tadpole," mid-15c., polwygle, probably from pol "head" (see poll (n.)) + wiglen "to wiggle" (see wiggle (v.)). Modern spelling is 1830s, replacing earlier polwigge.
Entries linking to polliwog
poll n.
c. 1300 (late 12c. as a surname), polle, "hair of the head; piece of fur from the head of an animal," also (early 14c.) "head of a person or animal," from or related to Middle Low German or Middle Dutch pol "head, top." The sense was extended by mid-14c. to "person, individual" (by polls "one by one," of sheep, etc., is recorded from mid-14c.)
Meaning "collection or counting of votes" is recorded by 1620s, from the notion of "counting heads;" the sense of "the voting at an election" is by 1832. The meaning "survey of public opinion" is recorded by 1902. A poll tax, literally "head tax," is from 1690s. Literal use in English tends toward the part of the head where the hair grows.
wiggle v.
early 13c., perhaps from Middle Dutch, Middle Low German, or Middle Flemish wigelen, frequentative of wiegen "to rock, wag, move back and forth," from wiege "cradle," from Proto-Germanic *wig- (source also of Old High German wiga, German Wiege "cradle," Old Frisian widze), from PIE root *wegh- "to go, move, transport in a vehicle." Related: Wiggled; wiggling. The noun is attested from 1816.
golliwog n.
type of grotesque blackface doll, 1895, coined by English children's book author and illustrator Florence K. Upton, perhaps from golly + polliwog.