Where did this quote originate?

Question

"If it quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, then its a duck." Where did it originate?

Answer 1

It was either daffey or donald.

Answer 2

It probably originated with the "Hoosier poet" James Whitcomb Riley, sometime around 1883-1885, with the quote:



"When I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck."



Martelli created the phrase duck typing for computers but the quote was in use before he adapted it to practical purposes.

Answer 3

The term is a reference to the duck test — "If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck". Alex Martelli is thought to have originated the term in a message to the comp.lang.python newsgroup.

Answer 4

It may have been Adam Sandler -- but he probably would have said "If it looks like a blue duck and quacks like a blue duck, then it probably is a blue duck"

Answer 5

It was coined in 1950 by Richard Cunningham Patterson Jr., United States Ambassador to Guatemala, during the Cold War. Patterson accused the Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán government of being communist.