Duct Tape vs. Duck Tape

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Mike Trinkline from Cedarburg, Wisconsin.

Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Mike, how you doing?

What’s going on in Cedarburg?

Well, not much. I’m a writer, so I don’t get out much.

I couldn’t even tell you what the weather is the last few weeks.

When’s the last time you took a shower?

My wife is laughing very hard right now. That is a dilemma.

Got a language question in there somewhere.

I write television documentaries, and one of the things I noticed is that when you have a narrator do a reading, he has to connect T’s. When one word ends in a T, another word begins in a T, he has to connect them. It’s what we call telegraphing the T’s.

So like if I were to say to an Olympian that they should have two meals, I would say you should eat twice. Now on paper there’s two T’s, but when we say it, there’s only one. Your tongue never leaves the top of your mouth.

Well, that all works perfectly fine when you’re speaking it, but I was kind of wondering about the impact on language. And the really best example of this is in filmmaking. We use a very handy product called duct tape. And you notice I did not telegraph the T’s there. I separated them, because if you telegraph them, it’s duct tape.

And duct tape is a great product, but I realized recently, I’ve seen it for sale, as duct tape. It looks like they’ve just sort of changed the whole word. And I was kind of wondering about how this happened, if this happened often, that how we say words, especially in that case, would change what the language actually is, because now my duct tape has a little duck on it.

And you’re wondering which came first, the duck or the duct?

Well, I think the duct came first, but I think the duct is losing, and that’s what I’m deeply concerned about. The duct tape is losing itself to duct tape.

Yeah, well, that’s a tricky one, isn’t it, Grant?

Yeah, that’s a tough one. There was a type of tape called duct tape, D-U-C-K, that is much older than the D-U-C tape, the duct tape. So there’s some confusion there between the two different types of tape.

Because it’s like cloth, like duck, like canvas duck?

That’s right, exactly right. Duck is a type of canvas or cloth.

But, Martha, I think what we’re talking about here is what we call in language is when you allied words, right?

Mm—

You’re kidding. You’re saying duct tape actually came first?

Well, we’re not sure. Etymologists have kind of been all around Robin Hood’s barn about it. We can’t say for sure which came first. We do know that in the printed record we see duct tape first, but, again, it’s a different type of tape. But it’s entirely possible that there are separate occasions of people confusing the words that came later. It’s probably likely, actually.

But to go back to your original question, the history of duct tape is interesting, but from a language geek’s point of view, I like what you’re saying about it sounds more natural when you blend the two sounds together, right? If you separate them, it sounds unnatural and unlikely.

Exactly. That’s the challenge, yeah.

Right, and I guess you see that all the time. I mean, where’s like ice cream and handicap parking hard disk, but you don’t see the spelling changing there.

I’m trying to think of…

Iced tea is the one that I can think of. So some restaurants, I live in New York City, so always walking down the street and I see signs, some list in the window we have iced tea with I-C-E-D-T-E-A in the window. Others leave off the D, and it’s only iced tea, and it’s because those D and T sounds do exactly what you’re talking about. They blend, and so it might seem natural to write only one of the hard contents and not both of them.

Oh, that’s fascinating.

Well, Mike, thank you so much for an interesting call. You led us to a bunch of places here.

Thanks. It’s a lot of fun. I listen every week on the podcast.

All right. Well, think of us the next time you use duct tape.

Or duct tape.

Or duct tape, whatever.

Whatever it wants.

And we’ll think of you.

Okay, thank you.

All right. Thanks, Mike.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Well, if you’d like for us to put you on tape, we won’t duck your questions. Just give us a call. The number is 1-877-929-9673.