Never smile at a crocodile?

July 25, 2005 7:33 AM

I'm reading Princesses, by Flora Fraser (which, OT, is a bit too much like school to be really enjoyable) and am interested in a term I don't understand.

She uses the word "crocodile" to describe the royal family (specifically the children) walking about. Google-fu is insufficient. Why on earth is this activity called a crocodile?

posted by SashaPT to writing & language (5 comments total)

I'm pretty sure it just refers to children walking two by two. Here's a google search for "children crocodile walking".
posted by gaspode at 7:44 AM on July 25, 2005

Dictionary: "chiefly British : a line of people (as schoolchildren) usually walking in pairs."
posted by JanetLand at 7:44 AM on July 25, 2005

But why is it called a crocodile?

(I feel like a five-year-old)
posted by SashaPT at 7:58 AM on July 25, 2005

This is the best I could find: "school crocodile: Moving in a line two-abreast. Unless practiced, the line inevitably begins to weave much like a crocodile moves." If you want to know more than that, find a library with a complete Oxford English Dictionary.
posted by JanetLand at 8:24 AM on July 25, 2005

The OED says:

4. colloq. (orig. humorous). a. A girls' school walking two and two in a long file. Also of a boys' school, etc.
(In use before 1870.) 1891 H. ATTERIDGE in Little Folks Nov. 326/1 He saw what boys sometimes call ‘a crocodile’—a girls' school out for a walk. 1898 J. K. JEROME Second Thoughts 311 We came upon a girls' school walking two and two,—a ‘crocodile’, they call it. 1922 Blackw. Mag. Oct. 487/2 The crocodile of small boys in the streets. 1926 I. M. PEACOCKE His Kid Brother ii. 37 To walk in a ‘crocodile’ of orphans. 1950 F. A. SWINNERTON Flower for Catherine 107 One saw her leading the long lines of schoolgirls which are called ‘Crocodiles’. 1968 M. BRAGG Without City Wall xx. 201 The crocodile rows of little children.

b. A long procession of moving objects close together. Also fig.
1912 H. G. WELLS Marriage ii. 55 She drove her little crocodile of primly sensible thoughts to their sane appointed conclusion. 1928 Manch. Guardian Weekly 17 Aug. 136/2 Those roads which.. do not carry an endless and snorting crocodile of cars. 1930 R. PERTWEE Pursuit I. xi. 55 Transport would pile up before and behind you in a ceaselessly cursing crocodile.
posted by languagehat at 10:47 AM on July 25, 2005