duck

duck
\ \ [OE] A duck is a bird that ‘ducks’ – as simple as that. It gets its name from its habit of diving down under the surface of the water.
\ \ There is no actual record of an English verb duck until the 14th century, but it is generally assumed that an Old English verb *dūcan did exist, which would have formed the basis of the noun duck. It came from a prehistoric West Germanic verb *dukjan, which also produced German tauchen ‘dive’. English is the only language which uses this word for the bird, although Swedish has the term dykand, literally ‘dive-duck’, which refers to the ‘diver’, a sort of large waterbird. Nor is it the original English word: the Anglo-Saxons mainly called the duck ened, a term which survived until the 15th century. This represents the main Indo-European name for the duck, which comes from an original *anə ti- and is found in Greek nessa, Latin anas, German ente, Dutch eend, Swedish and, and Russian utka.

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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Synonyms:
, , , / , , , / , , (downward)


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  • Duck — Duck, n. [OE. duke, doke. See {Duck}, v. t. ] 1. (Zool.) Any bird of the subfamily {Anatin[ae]}, family {Anatid[ae]}. [1913 Webster] Note: The genera and species are numerous. They are divided into {river ducks} and {sea ducks}. Among the former… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

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  • Duck — (d[u^]k), v. i. 1. To go under the surface of water and immediately reappear; to dive; to plunge the head in water or other liquid; to dip. [1913 Webster] In Tiber ducking thrice by break of day. Dryden. [1913 Webster] 2. To drop the head or… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Duck — (d[u^]k), n. [Cf. Dan. dukke, Sw. docka, OHG. doccha, G. docke. Cf. {Doxy}.] A pet; a darling. Shak. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

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