Meaning
Exceptionally fine, delicate, excellent, or in very good spirits. Regional, humorous, and now relatively obscure Regional use: United States, especially Southern, South Midland, Appalachian, and Ozark speech.
Origin
An American comic simile documented by 1865. Its joke depends on frogs ordinarily having no hair: anything imagined as frog hair must be vanishingly fine. Fine can describe slenderness or excellence, allowing the phrase to praise workmanship or answer a question about one's wellbeing. DARE marks frog hair in the relevant sense chiefly Southern and South Midland, and later speakers elaborated it with split four ways.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- fine as frog hair and twice as hard to split
- fine as frog hair split four ways
- fine as frog's hair
- finer than frog hair
Usage Examples
- The engraver's lines are fine as frog hair but still perfectly even.
- Ask Uncle Ray how he feels and he will say, 'Fine as frog hair split four ways.'