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Pedants' corner
Original poster

It is "duct tape"

93 replies

SomethingSuitablyWitty · 04/11/2011 15:04

and there is no such thing as "duck tape"!

Or maybe there is, but it would surely be for very specific uses only.

That is all.

OP posts:
Hassled · 04/11/2011 15:41

I'm gutted that there is a type of duct tape called Duck Tape. It means that all those years of correcting people in an irritating manner were wasted. They were right and I was irritating and wrong.

Tee2072 · 04/11/2011 15:41

Madame I worked in theatre for years and we used the terms gaffer and duct tape interchangeably. I didn't realize it was the adhesive that made the difference, I thought it was that duct is shiny and gaffer is matt!

pinktransit · 04/11/2011 15:42

I have waited my whole life (well, quite a lot of it anyway!) for someone else to ask this question...

sunshineoutdoors Fri 04-Nov-11 15:16:55
At the risk of sounding thick..... is it wall plugs or rawl plugs?

Can someone PLEASE answer it???

:D

MadameBoo · 04/11/2011 15:43

*verruca

I should be making ginger biscuits for a bonfire and fireworks party.

MadameBoo · 04/11/2011 15:43

I thought it was raw plugs?

cameltoeinlycra · 04/11/2011 15:45

They are rawl plugs.

MadameBoo · 04/11/2011 15:46

Well, whaddya know!

thousandDenier · 04/11/2011 15:46

He claims to have fixed many a rock poppet's too-tight jeans with gaffa.

I may apply this tactic to my ripped curtains. That'll get me banned from Good Housekeeping for ever

Original poster
SomethingSuitablyWitty · 04/11/2011 15:48

Well now hassled, you were not wrong. I can't accept that.

Constance that is an interesting new red herring you have thrown in the mix, leading to the inevitable question, are ducks in fact waterproof? But I stay with my original theory: they called it Duck Tape because that is what most people called it anyway. Gotta be!

OP posts:
Blatherskite · 04/11/2011 15:52

It seems both Wall plugs and Rawl plugs are right and calling a Wall plug a Rawl plug is like calling a vacuum cleaner and Hoover...

"Rawlplug Ltd. is a British engineering company. It is named after Rawlplug, a tradename it owns, as a name for wall plugs. The rawlplug product was invented by John Joseph Rawlings in 1911."

Blatherskite · 04/11/2011 15:52

calling a vacuum cleaner a Hoover...

Blush
elephantsteaparty · 04/11/2011 15:53

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_plug

'Tis the same thing as we have with hoover and the like. The original wall plug" was marketed under the name rawlplug^. Apparently.

So now we know!

LunaticFringe · 04/11/2011 15:54

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

FredFredGeorge · 04/11/2011 15:54

The first use of DUCT TAPE is from 1965, the first for DUCK TAPE is for 1902 and certainly in common use in the 1940's as far as the OED is concerned. You might query if the product is exactly the same thing as you buy now as Duck Tape or Duct Tape (but then what you're buying now is not duct tape as you wouldn't be allowed to use it in an air conditioning duct anyway as it's not fire-retardent enough) but there certainly is a product called duck tape, and YABVU to complain at someone for using it.

Original poster
SomethingSuitablyWitty · 04/11/2011 16:00
OP posts:
AWimbaWay · 04/11/2011 16:02

I always call it carpet tape, even though I've never actually used it to join a carpet.

ExitPursuedByaBear · 04/11/2011 16:02

I have read this thread, and enjoyed it.

Lunatic, can I share your anorak please?

SardineQueen · 04/11/2011 16:15

I would put money on the Duck tape brand coming about because so many people said duck tape when they should have been saying duct tape.

I am sure I never saw it in the shops until a few years ago.

However I would not put much money on it, as I am fairly frequently wrong about these things Grin

SardineQueen · 04/11/2011 16:16

AHA aha aha oho OHO and I am right

[[http://duckbrand.com/ their website]

"Duck Brand Duct Tape"

TADA!

Tanyaaah · 04/11/2011 16:21

If you say "Duct Tape" it sounds like you are saying "Duck Tape" anyway! How would you know what people are meaning to say, unless they are incredibly well spoken?

Original poster
SomethingSuitablyWitty · 04/11/2011 16:21

Vindicated!

But tell it to FFG!

OP posts:
Original poster
SomethingSuitablyWitty · 04/11/2011 16:23

you can tell when they write it down tanyaah

OP posts:
FredFredGeorge · 04/11/2011 16:23

The duck in question of "duck tape" originally is a fabric a light canvas, it's why it was relevant in the 40's as soldiers and sailors used the tape for repairing various canvas stuff of course.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_duck

ConstanceNoring · 04/11/2011 16:28

Duct tape was invented in Greece in about 400B.C. by a guy named Socrates Duct. His house had a big hole in one of the walls which was letting a draft in. When Duct went out to the woods to get some wood to fix the hole, he accidentally got some pine sap stuck to the bottom of his toga, which stuck to his leg and made him really uncomfortable. When he got home, Duct ripped of the sticky strip of toga and stuck it over the hole in the wall, and just like that, no more draft!

He showed his repair job to his buddies, and they started using the combination of cloth and sticky stuff to fix all sorts of stuff. They called it Duct tape after Socrates Duct, but then he got famous and dropped the "Duct" so he only had one name like Madonna and Cher. After that, everybody started asking him what other ideas he had, and pretty soon he was spouting off about everything. The rest is history.

dwpanxt · 04/11/2011 16:28

Now see what you made me do- google duck/duct tape and its thrown up nuclear grade duct tape wtf -but I want some.Grin