"If it quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, then its a duck." Where did it originate?
2007-03-20 15:47:31 · 5 answers · asked by yrg 2 in Education & Reference ➔ Quotations
It was either daffey or donald.
2007-03-20 15:50:33 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
It probably originated with the "Hoosier poet" James Whitcomb Riley, sometime around 1883-1885, with the quote:
"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."
Martelli created the phrase duck typing for computers but the quote was in use before he adapted it to practical purposes.
2007-03-20 22:52:29 · answer #2 · answered by Kuji 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The term is a reference to the duck test — "If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck". Alex Martelli is thought to have originated the term in a message to the comp.lang.python newsgroup.
2007-03-20 22:52:06 · answer #3 · answered by Cotton 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It may have been Adam Sandler -- but he probably would have said "If it looks like a blue duck and quacks like a blue duck, then it probably is a blue duck"
2007-03-20 23:05:01 · answer #4 · answered by Hal 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It was coined in 1950 by Richard Cunningham Patterson Jr., United States Ambassador to Guatemala, during the Cold War. Patterson accused the Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán government of being communist.
2007-03-20 22:54:36 · answer #5 · answered by Pluto Corsini 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋