He word duck comes from Old English *dÃ
«ce `diver`, a derivative of the verb *dÃ
«can `to duck, bend down low as if to get under something, or dive`, because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending; compare with Dutch duiken and German tauchen `to dive`. This word replaced Old English ened/ænid `duck`, possibly to avoid confusion with other Old English words, like ende `end` with similar forms. Other Germanic languages still have similar words for `duck`, for example, Dutch eend `duck`, German Ente `duck` and Norwegian and `duck`. The word ened/ænid was inherited from Proto-Indo-European; compare: Latin anas `duck`, Lithuanian ántis `duck`, Ancient Greek nÃâssa/nÃâtta ýá¿â ÃÆÃÆñ, ýá¿â ÃâÃâñ `duck`, and Sanskrit ÃÂtà`water bird`, among others. A duckling is a young duck in downy plumage[1] or baby duck,[2] but in the food trade a young domestic duck which has just reached adult size and bulk and its meat is still fully tender, is sometimes labelled as a duckling. A male duck is called a drake and the female is called a duck, or in ornithology a hen.
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