Ducks Enrich Human Language

From ancient times to the present, people have drawn on the animal world for imagery to express all sorts of emotions and ideas. One of the most linguistically influential animals is the duck. It has enriched human language in many ways, especially these: the generic name of the animal, the names of various specific types of ducks, the figurative expressions evolving from duck characteristics, and the sounds made by the ducks themselves.

The Generic Name

The Modern English word duck comes from Middle English duk and doke, which go back to Old English duce, based on a verb meaning "to dive," referring to the way many of the animals feed. The duck, then, is "the diver."

Earlier, however, the animal was known by the Old English word ened, which eventually became confused, in both spelling and pronunciation, with ende ("end"). Other Germanic languages had the same similarity between the two words. Modern German, for example, still has Ente ("duck") and Ende ("end"). This similarity goes way back to the Indo-European era, reflected in Latin anas (stem anat-, "duck") and Sanskrit anta ("end"). In English, the solution to this confusion was a new word--duck.

Names of Duck Types

There are many different kinds of ducks. Diving ducks feed by diving to the bottom of deep water. Dabbling ducks feed by dipping their heads into usually shallow water.

Colorful common names abound in duckdom. Ruddy ducks, named for their brownish red color, are also known as fool ducks, so called because of their tameness, which allows them to be easily caught. Goldeneye ducks have distinctive yellow eyes. Shoveler ducks have long, spoon-shaped bills for "shoveling" mud and sifting out small organisms and seeds for food.Torrent ducks feed in the fast-flowing streams of the Andes; they have sharp claws for clinging to rocks, feathers streamlined to allow rapidly moving water to flow over them, and stiff tails to help them balance and steer in the torrents. Wood ducks, unlike most ducks, nest in the cavities of trees (hence "wood"), sometimes up to fifty feet off the ground; they have long claws for perching up there.

Figurative Expressions