Brian from Mandan, North Dakota, is puzzling over one of her mother’s sayings. If someone left quickly or abruptly, she’d say that they took off like a ruptured duck. There’s a famous World War II-era military discharge emblem featuring an eagle that was jokingly called a ruptured duck. But the term ruptured duck itself had already been in use before that. In the early 1900s, a newbie might be sent to find a ruptured duck as part of a hazing ritual or practical joke, the sort of activity that might also involve sending someone to fetch a can of striped paint or other nonexistent item. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Ruptured Duck”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Brian calling from Manda, North Dakota.
Hey, Brian, we’re glad to have you. What’s up?
My mom always had a saying, and I was really curious about the origin of the saying.
Just to give a little context, she died six years ago at the age of 95.
So she was a young adult during World War II, which kind of makes sense with the saying that she used to say.
And she would always say if someone would leave abruptly or really fast, she would say that they took off like a ruptured duck.
Like a ruptured duck?
Like a ruptured duck.
R-U-P-T-U-R-E-D-D-U-C-K.
Ruptured duck.
Ruptured.
R-U-P-T-U-R-E-D.
Yes.
Ruptured duck.
So quick or sudden, did she ever use it when people left kind of like in a mess or in a hurry or kind of clumsily?
Well, just in a hurry.
It’s just like, oh, they were supposed to leave at this time, but they left, you know, I mean, really fast.
Okay.
It sounds terrible.
Abruptly, yeah.
So I think people’s eyes and ears are lighting up across our listenership because there are so many different ways to take this.
The first thing we have to talk about is that there’s a very well-known emblem of an eagle that was – you probably saw this if you Googled it – on a military discharge emblem used in World War II.
That was jokingly called a ruptured duck.
We’re not 100% sure, but I have some theories.
One of the theories is the way the emblem looks.
Is one of the wings is kind of under the circle of the logo.
That’s what it looks like, yeah.
And he’s a little chubby too.
Like he says, his feathers are a little too fluffed up.
There’s something weird about the guy.
So jokingly calling an eagle a duck is 100% within military humor.
That’s exactly the kind of thing they would do.
And we have many examples of that happening, of the eagle in a variety of U.S. Military logos being called a duck or something other than an eagle.
But what’s really interesting, before that symbol was called the ruptured duck in military humor, it existed.
The term ruptured duck already existed as far back as the very early 1900s, many decades before, and almost always used humorously.
For example, there’s a story about it being one of those things that they would haze college students to go hunt for.
You know, go find a ruptured duck, which, of course, you don’t know what that is or if it exists.
So you never come back with anything.
And you’ll find it.
And this is probably the key connector here to the war and the military.
You’ll find it in flying uses.
And this is probably where we get to take off like a ruptured duck because almost always it was not a soaring, beautiful trip.
We’re talking about planes that barely make it off the ground or when something goes bad right off the bat.
These awkward moments that are inevitably going to happen when people are learning to fly or in the military theater actually facing combat.
Mm—
Mm—
Well, and I know because she, you know,
As a young adult during World War II,
That’s kind of where I thought the origin
From that saying came from and definitely makes sense.
That’s one of the few sayings I could probably say out loud
In public with what she came up with.
A lady of some color then.
Exactly.
We appreciate your call, Brian.
Thanks for talking with us today.
Thank you so much.
Bye-bye.
Take care now.
Bye-bye.
