[Ads-l] The Duck Test

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Interesting match, Stephen.
Below is the most entertaining match I found while searching for
"quacks like a duck". This citation is definitely not an example of
the duck test, but it does nicely illustrate the logic of a child.

Date: April 9, 1919
Periodical: The Aeroplane
Page Title: The World of Aeronautics
Article: The Bolo Riddle
Publisher: General Publishing Company, London
Quote Page 1434
https://archive.org/details/aeroplane161919lond/page/1434/mode/1up?q=quacks

[Begin excerpt]
. . . one is reminded of the child who asked the riddle: "What animal
is it that has fur, four legs, and that quacks like a duck?" As no one
could guess, the youthful interrogator gleefully said the answer was
"a dog," and, when it was objected that a dog rarely quacked,
remarked, with maddening placidity, that the quack had been put in to
make the riddle more difficult.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Wed, Feb 21, 2024 at 5:19 PM Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:
>
> 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
> ________________________________
> 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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