[Ads-l] The Duck Test

[Bonnie Taylor-Blake]

Here's a very dumb little something from 1918 with superficial resemblance,
but which is not set up as a test, but as a riddle. Just in case this
influenced the development of the full blown saying. (This was printed in
several newspapers across the country that year.)

Bucks -- What is it that has feathers al laround [sic] and quacks like a
duck.

Bones -- I'll bite; what is it?

Bucks -- Why, a duck, you nut.

[In The Chattanooga News, 17 January 1918, p. 4;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-chattanooga-news-quacks-like-a-duck/141802138/
)

-- Bonnie "Why a no chicken?" Taylor-Blake

On Tue, Feb 20, 2024 at 9:01 PM Baker, John <
000014a9c79c3f97-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

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://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_test.  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
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org