Why does someone yell 'DUCK!!!' when something is about to hit someone (i mean why duck...like the bird)?

Question

Why does someone yell 'DUCK!!!' when something is about to hit someone (i mean why duck...like the bird)?

Question #25723. Asked by student.
Last updated Sep 01 2016.

Related Trivia Topics: Vocabulary

Senior Moments
Answer has 3 votes

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Senior Moments

Answer has 3 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.

The Online Etymological Dictionary gives a more sensible answer:

duck (v.) - "to plunge into" (transitive), c. 1300; to suddenly go under water (intransitive), mid-14c., from presumed Old English *ducan "to duck," found only in derivative duce (n.) "duck" (but there are cognate words in other Germanic languages, such as Old High German tuhhan "to dip," German tauchen "to dive," Old Frisian duka, Middle Dutch duken "to dip, dive," Dutch duiken), from Proto-Germanic *dukjan.

Sense of "bend, stoop quickly" is first recorded in English 1520s. Related: Ducked; ducking. The noun is attested from 1550s in the sense of "quick stoop;" meaning "a plunge, dip" is from 1843.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=duck

Response last updated by looney_tunes on Sep 01 2016.
Dec 30 2002, 12:54 PM

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Answer 1

riotgrrl
Answer has 2 votes

riotgrrl
23 year member
113 replies

Answer has 2 votes.

Both 'duck', the bird, and 'to duck' are from the same root, meaning 'to dive' (picture a duck diving under water).

Dec 30 2002, 3:22 AM

Why does someone yell 'DUCK!!!' when something is about to hit someone (i mean why duck...like the bird)?

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