Etymograph

English

duck

Duck comes from Middle English ducken ‘to duck, plunge under water, submerge’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *dūkaną.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*dūkaną‘to dip, dive, bend down, stoop, duck’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*dūkan‘to dive, dive under’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150*dūcan‘to dip, dive, duck’reconstructed
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ducken‘to duck, plunge under water, submerge’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1605–1608duck

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*dūkaną‘to dip, dive, bend down, stoop, duck’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*dūkan‘to dive, dive under’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150*dūcan‘to dip, dive, duck’reconstructed
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ducken‘to duck, plunge under water, submerge’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1605–1608duck

Earliest quotation: c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, The Life of Tymon of Athens: “The Learned pate / Duckes to the Golden Foole.”

Every English word from Proto-Germanic *dūkaną

Another origin of duck

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*dūkaną‘to dive, bend down’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*dūkan‘to dive, dive under’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150*dūcan‘to dip, dive, duck’reconstructed
  4. Old English, derivedc. 450–1150dū̆ce
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500doke‘duck, drake’
  6. Englishtodayduck

From Middle English doke, ducke, dukke, dokke, douke, duke, from Old English duce, dūce (“duck”, literally “dipper, diver, ducker”), from Old English *dūcan (‘to dip, dive, duck’), from Proto-West Germanic *dūkan, from Proto-Germanic *dūkaną (‘to dive, bend down’).

Another origin of duck

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dwōg-reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*dōkaz‘cloth, rag’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*dōk‘cloth, rag’reconstructed
  4. Old Dutchc. 500–1150*dōcreconstructed
  5. Middle Dutchc. 1150–1500doeck‘linen cloth’
  6. Dutchc. 1500–presentdoek
  7. Englishtodayduck

Today it means

verb To quickly lower (the head or body), often in order to prevent it from being struck by something.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *dūkaną / duck

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