Duck soup

[Dennis R. Preston]

Ahhhh! Redundancy, Languages (and apparently even people) love it.

dInIs



>In a message dated 09/01/2002 7:18:21 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
>TheEditor at WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG writes:
>
>>  The one suggestion that has come in from a subscriber, Terence Sims,
>>   that sounds plausible is that it might be a corruption of "duck
>>   shoot". He points out that wildfowling with a wide-bore punt gun can
>>   kill a a large number of sitting ducks at one time, so may be
>>   considered an easy task.
>
>Off-topic, but isn't "wide-bore punt gun" redundant?  A punt gun is best
>described as "artillery"---a gun too big to be fired from one's shoulder, and
>which is mounted on a "punt" (a type of boat).  The one example I have seen
>(on display in a local restaurant) has a barrel longer than I am tall.  In
>order to fire enough buckshot, or whatever, to kill a commercial quantity of
>ducks, it must necessarily be large-bore ("wide-bore")
>
>                 - Jim Landau

--
Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Languages
740 Wells Hall A
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
Office - (517) 353-0740
Fax - (517) 432-2736