krokodili

Etymology
From. The origin of the expression is unclear. Several suggestions have been made:


 * From the fact that crocodiles' extremely large mouths make an apt comparison for carelessly flapping one's jaws without consideration.
 * Ferrari, an Esperantist in Paris in the 1930s, would comment Kion volas tiuj krokodiloj? (What do those crocodiles want?) when noisy non-Esperantists entered the cafe where he was speaking Esperanto with friends.
 * Students of Andreo Cseh. When Cseh taught Esperanto, students were only allowed to speak their native language when they were holding a wooden crocodile he always brought with him.

The latter two may be allusions to the idiom rather than its source.

Verb

 * 1)  to speak among Esperantists in a language besides Esperanto, especially one's native language or a language not spoken by everyone present