Poe uses an antiquated idiom, “Hop-Frog,” both for the title of the short story and also throughout the story itself. The narrator explains the origins of the character’s nickname:
I believe the name “Hop-Frog” was not that given to the dwarf by his sponsors at baptism, but it was conferred upon him, by general consent of the seven ministers, on account of his inability to walk as other men do. In fact, Hop-Frog could only get along by a sort of interjectional gait—something between a leap and a wriggle,—a movement that afforded illimitable amusement, and of course consolation, to the king, for (notwithstanding the protuberance of his stomach and a constitutional swelling of the head) the king, by his whole court, was accounted a capital figure.
“Hop-frog” is an antiquated idiom, an earlier form of the contemporary idiom “leapfrog.” The word works both as a noun, referring to a children’s game that involves participants jumping over one another in a frog-like manner, and also as a verb, often used in military contexts, meaning to leap over or advance beyond another party. The nickname “Hop-Frog,” then, was given to him by the king’s ministers in reference to a disability that makes it difficult and painful for Hop-Frog to walk upright and forces him to move in a manner that resembles hopping. The idiom therefore serves as an intentionally demeaning and insulting nickname in the context of the story.
