[Ads-l] The Duck Test

[Laurence Horn]

Eventuating in Groucho and Chico's routine exploiting the Roman viaduct (why a duck, indeed?):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_a_Duck%3F <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_a_Duck?>



> On Feb 21, 2024, at 6:28 PM, Bonnie Taylor-Blake <b.taylorblake at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> 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


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