who will pick up the gauntlet?

[Dave Wilton]

> I was still skeptical, but I assume Safire did his homework
> and didn't take a hobbyist web site's word for it. I'm
> looking forward to other comments on this, because I was
> surprised when I saw the "duck tape" theory being recounted
> unskeptically in various publications recently. If it's true,
> it's pretty fascinating.

I would say that we're dealing with two (maybe three) independent coinages
for two (or three) entirely different things.

The adhesive "duct" tape was created in 1970. "Duck Tape" is a brand of duct
tape.

The 1940s cloth "duck" tape that Safire refers to is not adhesive. It's
still in use in the Army, only we called it "engineer's tape" when I served
in the 1980s. (At least I think it's the same stuff. If not exactly the
same, it sounds like it is pretty similar.) I would guess that it is either
called "duck" because of its use in waterproofing or because it is made out
of cotton duck cloth

"Duck" cloth is a term that dates to the 17th century (beats Safire's column
by three centuries) and is probably from the Dutch "doeck," meaning linen.
I'm confident that the venetian blind citation in Safire's article is a
reference to cotton duck cloth.