Which of the following best explains the origin of the word “duck”?
(1) We call ducks “ducks” because they duck — dabbling and diving in water.
(2) We say someone “ducks” when they indeed duck because they’re ducking like the birds we call “ducks” duck.
(3) Huh?
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word “duck” originally referred to the swimming birds, particularly those in the genus Anas (e.g., mallards and domestic ducks). This use is documented as early as 967 AD.
By the 15th century, the word’s meaning had broadened. As a verb, the word could mean to “plunge or dive” — as ducks, indeed, do — under water.
By 1530, we no longer limited the action to water. The word now could also contain the act of bending or stooping quickly, whether on water or not. We were now ducking when we, in a sense, plunged or dove down to avoid or dodge something or to hide under things on land.
Perhaps my favorite meaning to the word is a US innovation, dating to the end of the 1800s. Then, the word took on two related meanings: to abscond or to dodge. Apparently, we owe these innovations to George Ade, a writer whose stories focused on life on American streets and used everyday slang to convey that life. Ade’s listed thrice in the OED entry for “duck,” the verb. Here’s one example, from Artie (1896), “He was with a lot o’ them Prairie avenue boys, and purty soon he ducks ’em and comes over an’ touches me for two cases.”
Short story long: the correct answer is (2). We say someone “ducks” when they indeed duck because they’re ducking like the birds we call “ducks” duck.
Update
According to The Bird Name Book: A History of English Bird Names by Susan Myers, the word “duck” may have an origin story that pre-dates the one that the OED tells. “The theoretical Old English word dūce is thought to come from the Old English verb dūcan, “to duck, to dive,” because of the way many species feed by upending or diving,” Myers writes (p. 108). This explanation has the action of ducking being applied to the bird that takes this action in water.
So perhaps the best answer is choice (A) after all!
But the more general point is this — the birds we call “ducks” just seem like “ducks.” And, if you’re like me, you don’t realize you’re alluding to a movement we share with ducks — to duck — when we indeed duck. Follow?
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