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  • Toad is קרפדה (karpada) in hebrew.
  • Toad is crapaud in French.

The two words have the same 4 consonants in the same order, which does not seem to be by mere accident. Looks like one language has borrowed the word from another. The question is which? If the word toad appears in tanach in its current hebrew form, then it is clear that French copied it from Hebrew. Otherwise, it is a French word transcripted into Hebrew, much like the English word brush made it into מברשת (mivrashet) in Hebrew.

Thanks.

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Welcome to Judaism.SE, and thanks very much for bringing your question here! – Isaac Moses Jun 10 '11 at 4:11

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קרפדה does not appear in the Tanakh.

On the 55th page of the Qof section in this hebrew etymology book has a listing for קרפדה, but does not give it's etymology. According to an French etymology dictionary, craupaud was first attested in French in the 12th century.

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Thanks. I guess then Hebrew borrowed it from French. – mark Jun 9 '11 at 5:14

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