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Definition 2025

"Ne krokodilu" sign

krokodili ‎(present krokodilas, past krokodilis, future krokodilos, conditional krokodilus, volitive krokodilu)

(slang) to speak among Esperantists in a language besides Esperanto, especially one's native language or a language not spoken by everyone present (literally, "to crocodile")
- 2001 April, Hori Yasuo, “Kron-Put: Vjetnama bambua muzikilo”, in Monato (in Esperanto), ISSN 0772-456X, OCLC 12892852, page 27:
  Miaj geamikoj, krokodilante, decidis mendojn.
  My friends, speaking their native language, decided on [food] orders.

Conjugation of krokodili

		present		past		future
		singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
tense		krokodilas		krokodilis		krokodilos
active participle		krokodilanta	krokodilantaj	krokodilinta	krokodilintaj	krokodilonta	krokodilontaj
active participle	acc.	krokodilantan	krokodilantajn	krokodilintan	krokodilintajn	krokodilontan	krokodilontajn
nominal active participle		krokodilanto	krokodilantoj	krokodilinto	krokodilintoj	krokodilonto	krokodilontoj
nominal active participle	acc.	krokodilanton	krokodilantojn	krokodilinton	krokodilintojn	krokodilonton	krokodilontojn
adverbial active participle		krokodilante		krokodilinte		krokodilonte

infinitive		krokodili						imperative		krokodilu						conditional		krokodilus

krokodili

From krokodilo ‎(“crocodile”). The origin of the expression is unclear. Several suggestions have been made:

From crocodile tears. A crocodile sheds tears while eating its prey in the myth, just as the krokodilanto bemoans the fate of Esperanto while not bothering to speak it.
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.^[1]
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.