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From krokodilo(“crocodile”) + -i. 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.[1][2][3]
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.[4]
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.
