[Ads-l] The Duck Test

[Stephen Goranson]

Maybe, or maybe not, a good example of the duck test.
Maybe, or maybe not, a cousin of "tastes like chicken."

Weat Virginia Wild Life,  XI 5-6. May-June, 1933, page 7/2:

The frog more nearly resembles a duck, he swims and dives like a duck, his feet are webbed like ducks, he lives along the water like a duck,  he quacks like a duck, and when eaten tastes like a duck, (maybe).

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015084405995&seq=475

sg
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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Baker, John <000014a9c79c3f97-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2024 9:01 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: The Duck Test

There is a famous functional test, frequently used in legal reasoning and political rhetoric, for determining how something should be treated.  One formulation is "When I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck."  This version is attributed to James Whitcomb Riley (1849 - 1916), the "Hoosier poet," who was once enormously popular and is still read today, although I cannot seem to find it in his works (which, however, I have not searched in full).

Wikipedia suggests a different, later origin, https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_test__;!!OToaGQ!suZLx32tMZwkPy_OWlUOgIBfusOc98E_RSOcZbwUDZA1Ww-4J3IPGRZq0UMceLTmcCTLZ5Y-wQTxJ6KcCFgT9c5a4gcBVF-Frdc$ .  Emil Mazey, secretary-treasurer of the United Auto Workers, at a labor meeting in 1946 accused a person of being a communist:  "I can't prove you are a Communist. But when I see a bird that quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, has feathers and webbed feet and associates with ducks-I'm certainly going to assume that he is a duck."  Can this be antedated?

I might mention in passing that, as a guide to ornithology, the duck test is quintessentially unreliable.  As a practical approach to considering legal consequences, however, this functional test is well-regarded.


John Baker




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