# Lord love a duck? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 20, 2013, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-love-a-duck/647804 "2013-01-20T14:57:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MBWalsh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@MBWalsh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MBWalsh)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2021, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-love-a-duck/647804/21 "2021-08-22T01:12:59Z")
From U. S. A. - I use the phrase "Lord love a duck!"a lot, when I am surprised. My mom used the phrase once and I remember wondering where she picked it up. Then I realized that the old b&w Sherlock Holmes movies on tv, that I love, were in the movies when she was young. I picked up the phrase, I believe, from Dennis Hoey’s Inspector Lestrade! I have heard it in a few places since, from Sherlock Holmes fans! ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-love-a-duck/647804/22 "2021-08-23T04:43:46Z")
> [@Asympotically\_fat](#): > > I’m from London, it’s usual to use the whole rhyming phrase, especially when you want to emphasise the meaning original meaning. So for example, you might say “Get in the britneys!”, but you might equally say “Get in the britney spears!” when you wanted to someone to order a round of drinks. Some of the older phrases like “apples and pears” and “trouble and strife” are rarely contracted so that they don’t rhyme with their actual meaning and indeed some of the modern ones too(e.g. people only usually say “It’s all gone horribly pete tong!” as opposed to “It’s all gone horribly pete!”). I wouldn’t say it’s usual to use the whole phrase for every example, but yeah, it is for some, like this one and apples and pears. And yeah, I’ve heard it in real life - only from older people, but it’s definitely used. My parents’ generation (70s) use it. Without the d in lord. (I’m assuming you mean they do rhyme, not don’t). ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-love-a-duck/647804/23 "2021-08-23T05:19:58Z")
If “duck” is taken to refer to a person, then I imagine the phrase “odd duck” (I.e. a strange fellow) must be of similar origin. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-love-a-duck/647804/24 "2021-08-23T05:40:20Z")
There’s a character in a 1959 Sci-Fi [short story](https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20191017) by Cordwainer Smith called Lord Lovaduck. > Prince Lovaduck had obtained his odd name because he had had a Chinesian ancestor who did love ducks, ducks in their Peking form—succulent duck skins brought forth to him ancestral dreams of culinary ecstasy. > > His ancestress, an English lady, had said, “Lord Lovaduck, that fits you!”—and the name had been proudly taken as a family name. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-love-a-duck/647804/25 "2021-08-23T07:04:24Z")
And lets not forget the villainous Sydney Ducks, a mob of largely ex-Tasmanian convicts who went off to the California goldrushes and discovered there was more and easier money to be made in the wild streets of San Francisco. Imagine an unholy blending of Deadwood, Gangs of New York and the Wiggles. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-love-a-duck/647804/26 "2021-08-23T07:50:55Z")
In the English Household Magazine, September 1882, there’s a story article titled ‘Reminiscences of a Ne’er Do Well’, which contains the following short poem: Hail, asthmatic bye-and-bye; Welcome gout and dropsy - ‘Love’s a bother,’ so say I - ‘Love’s a duck’ says Popsy. I don’t know if this is related at all - it appears to predate all of the printed instances of ‘love a duck’ I can find, but it might just be chance arrangement of the same words. > **[The English household magazine](https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_English_household_magazine/GDIFAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&d&pg=PA284&printsec=frontcover)** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-love-a-duck/647804.md?page=1)