Middle English "quek"

[Jonathan Lighter]

This URL provides a tuneful take on the dark side of our feathered aquatic "friends":

http://www.harpercollins.com-hc-images-om-JB-SinisterDucks-March

JL

"Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Baker, John"
Subject: Re: Middle English "quek"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You've got 14th century for quack as a verb, so you must have had something from this period. In any case, it does appear that quack is not suspiciously new - unlike oink and, especially, ribbet, which really seems to have come from nowhere. I don't recall ever hearing ribbet as a child in the sixties, but it was dominant by the late seventies.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of Joanne M. Despres
Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2005 3:43 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Middle English "quek"


Okay, here's the cite:

The goos, the cokkow, and the doke also
So cryede, "Kek kek! Kokkow! quek quek!" hye,
That thourgh myne eres the noyse wente tho.

Parliament of Fowls 498-500

Hm, looks like we missed it, too -- our date for "quack" is 1798.

Joanne

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