paddock-stool

English

Etymology

From Middle English paddocstol, paddok stule; equivalent to paddock (“frog; toad”) +‎ stool.

Noun

paddock-stool (plural paddock-stools)

1. (chiefly Scotland) A toadstool.
   • 1897, William Thomas Fernie, Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure, page 373:

     The toad was popularly thought to impersonate the devil; and the toad-stool, pixie stool, or paddock stool was believed to spring from the devil's droppings.

   • 1911, Joseph Campbell, Mearing Stones: Leaves from My Note-book on Tramp in Donegal:

     I asked an old woman in the fields this morning, pointing to a cluster of what we in the north-east corner call paddock-stools, and sometimes fairy-stools.

   • 2010, R. M. Ballantyne, The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean, page 46:

     Sometimes, when Jack happened to be in a humorous frame, he would seat himself at the bottom of the sea on one of the brain-corals, as if he were seated on a large paddock-stool, and then make faces at me, in order, if possible, to make me laugh under water.