where did that expression come from? these are the type of questions that can send me scurrying away into a burrow of obscure infotainment for minutes.....and many are the valuable minutes of my life that fritter themselves away because of this.
if you emphasize the word "duck":
Quote:
9. lame duck: a disabled person or thing: spec. (Stock Exchange slang): one who cannot meet his financial engagements; a defaulter. Also, short, duck.
1761 H. WALPOLE Lett. H. Mann 28 Dec. (1843) I. 60 Do you know what a Bull, and a Bear, and a Lame Duck are? 1771 GARRICK Prol. to Foote's Maid of B., Change-Alley bankrupts waddle out lame ducks! 1806-7 J. BERESFORD Miseries Hum. Life (1826) XII. xviii, Attending at the Stock-exchange on settling-day amidst the quack of Ducks, the bellowings of Bulls, and the growls of Bears. 1832 MACAULAY Mirabeau Misc. 1860 II. 95 Frauds of which a lame duck on the Stock exchange would be ashamed. 1889 C. D. WARNER Little Journ. xvii, Do you think I have time to attend to every poor duck?
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if you emphasize the word "lame"
Quote:
3. lame duck, (a) (see DUCK n.1 9); (b) U.S. Politics, an office-holder who is not, or cannot be, re-elected; spec. (before 1933), a defeated member in the short session of Congress after a November election; also attrib.; (c) a ship that is damaged, esp. one left without a means of propulsion; (d) an industry, commercial firm, etc., that cannot survive without financial help, esp. by means of a government subsidy; hence as v. trans. (rare), to help (a disabled person); to lame-duck it: to travel with difficulty; {dag}to come by the lame post: (of news, etc.) to be behind time.
1658 OSBORN Jas. I iii. Wks. (1673) 469 Till by a lamer Post he was advertised of his being joyfully Proclaimed in London by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen. 1701 MOTT in Sir J. Floyer Hot & Cold Bath. II. 240 Yours of the 24th of May I received, but it had the misfortune to come by the Lame Post, or else you had sooner received an Answer. 1761, etc. [see DUCK n.1 9]. 1863 Congress. Globe 14 Jan. 307/1 In no event..could it [sc. the Court of Claims] be justly obnoxious to the charge of being a receptacle of ‘lame ducks’ or broken down politicians. 1876 C. CHAPMAN First Ten Yrs. Sailor's Life at Sea x. 411 A lame duck on the sea means a ship which has been more or less damaged while crossing the perilous ocean. 1910 N.Y. Even. Post 8 Dec. 8 ‘Lame Duck Alley’..is the name they [sc. reporters] have given to a screened-off corridor in the White House offices, where statesmen who went down in the recent electoral combat may meet. 1922 N.Y. Times 6 Dec. 18/2 Senator Norris is all for the plan ‘to have the convening of Congress moved up to avoid lame-duck Congresses’. 1925 Independent (Boston, Mass.) 21 Feb. 213/1 The proposed Constitutional amendment..has been usually designated as the ‘lame-duck’ amendment. 1932 Times 14 Dec. 13/2 A ‘lame duck’ Administration was in power, and a ‘lame duck’ Congress still in being. 1933 P. A. EADDY Hull Down xiv. 256 Our old ‘lame duck’ had not done so badly after all. 1943 N. BALCHIN Small Back Room 70 It's so bloody dangerous lame-ducking it home by yourself. 1963 J. FOWLES Collector II. 213, I want to be his friend and lameduck him in London. 1970 New Yorker 14 Nov. 175/3 My father, with his predilection for lame ducks, was the natural person to try to rescue it. 1972 Economist 26 Aug. 8 The Economist calls lame ducks those industries whose survival is claimed to depend on government subsidy. In the United States a lame duck is a politician whose current term is his last, owing to defeat in a primary or general election, or other reasons. 1973 Times 5 June 22/6 The Government, being at that stage still keen on its lame duck policy, refused to help, and the board went away to have a further think. 1973 Listener 29 Nov. 741/1 It is now the Congress..which will be disposing what a lame duck President may propose.
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apparently in american, the accent falls on lame, not so much on duck--but the duck did not seem to have been the leading edge of development of this Important Lexical Formation---rather there was a floating Lameness to which only gradually was a Duck attached. the mystery in all this is of course the process of Duck Attachment, which seems to have unfolded sometime between 24 may 1701 and 1763, perhaps in a Laboratory somewhere.
uncovering the remaining traces of English Duck Attachment Industry is a worthy task for archaeologists who otherwise would be traipsing about central asia looking for noah's ark and such. they should get on this.
i think i'll write a letter.
but first:
huzzah!
huzzah for the oed!
say it yourself, now, to your monitor.
you know you want to.