David's online nickname (from German Frosch 'frog' and -lein diminutive suffix) and the thread on Why oh Y have lead me to the etymology of French grenouille 'frog' from the Vulgar Latin ranucula from rana 'frog' with a double diminutive suffix -culus (cf. homunculus 'weakly man, manikin', lepusculus 'young hare', pediculus 'little foot').

Hmmm, pediculus to me means lice. From what I can tell in reading the online OED, it comes from the Latin pediculus, which means "louse." However, it is related to the Indo-European root as pedere, meaning "to break wind" and also Avestan pazdu-, meaning "small harmful insect." I haven't even heard of Avestan! It also says it's related to the Italian pedicello, meaning, ‘pimple.’

I don't get the "break wind" part, and I have to admit that I am never all that confident that I am reading the OED correctly. Their abbreviations and comments like, "of ped-, pes foot (see -PED); cf. -I-. Cf. PEDO-1, also PODO." are a bit daunting when you are new at reading the OED.

Is your pediculus related to the "lice" pediculus?

Latin, like many other languages, has synonyms, too. Pediculus (dim. of pes, pedis, 'foot') means little foot; pediculus (also peduculus, pedunculus, dim. of pedis 'louse') means louse. To break wind is a standard euphemism for to fart. Avestan is the liturgical language of the Zoroastrians / Zarathustrians (also called Parsees) because the Avesta is written in it. It is an Iranian language, related to Farsi, Kurdish, and Pashtu.

Well, you learn something (or somethings) new every day! I just didn't know how to break wind was related to lice, but I guess that's for another time.

Thanks, Zmj.