toad

Toad comes from Middle English tode, toode, tadde, or tade, which traces back to Old English *tāde, itself a shortened form of tādie or tādiġe.

The facts don't show a shift in meaning — from Old English onward it seems to have simply meant the same warty, hopping creature it does today.

It's cognate with Scots tade, taid, taed, or ted, and possibly shares a prehistoric root with Danish tudse and Swedish tåssa or tossa — though Old English also had two other, seemingly unrelated words for the same animal, tāxe and tosca.