My mother, who is Canadian, says this expression all the time. Her children, who are American, tease her about it, because she's the only person we know who uses it, and it's such a funny expression to show frustration.
I'm curious, though - have any of you heard anyone use this expression, or is it just an ideosyncracy of my mother's? Even my father, who is also Canadian, thinks it's a funny expression. If it is a real expression, where does it come from? What does it mean?
[This message was edited by Sarai on 02-05-04 at 10:50 PM.]
Posts: 2241 | Location: In between | Registered: 06-03-02
A similar question was posed on another Q&A site and one responder indicated that the expression was common while he was growing up in London in the 1930s.
Lord Love A Duck was an irreverent 1966 movie with Roddy McDowall and Tuesday Weld. The expression seems to have preceded the movie.
Posts: 7742 | Location: in the backwoods of North Carolina | Registered: 06-07-02
I agree that this expression used to be quite common in England, perhaps mainly used by women. It does indeed precede the 1966 movie.
A similarly odd expression for surprise or frustration was "Stone the crows". I believe that one is still quite widely heard in Australia, and appeared in the Crocodile Dundee movies. When they were shown to American audiences everyone started looking up at the skies, and the theatre had to produce pamphlets with translations of that and other phrases!
The modern equivalents of such phrases would probably trigger AP's filter.
Posts: 744 | Location: Surrey, England | Registered: 06-03-02
Lord,love a duck ? Very common in England, certainly and always associated with women; the expression has died with them. Film makers of the past were fond of having women of 40 and above say it as a marker to indicate that the characters were typical 'cockneys'.It is an expression of surprise or mock disbelief. It is quite possibly a suggestion of something as absurd or surprising as what has been heard or witnessed; 'stone the crows!' is in that category, it seems.
Otherwise it could be a play on the word duck for 'zero' or 'nothing'. Every batsman in cricket fears being 'out for a duck',out without scoring. That comes from the shape of a duck's egg, an oval 'O', for zero. (Coincidentally love meaning zero in tennis is said to have that origin : 'l'oeuf' may sound like 'love' and means 'the egg' or zero in the French of real tennis, tennis' ancestor). So perhaps it's a reference to the Lord , who loves us all, loving nothing, which is impossible. So the speaker is saying: "And may you, Oh Lord love nothing!, I suppose !
'Stone me!' is another expression of despairing disbelief or surprise, much associated with the late comedian of the '50s and '60s Tony Hancock. There was in fact an Australian actor, Bill Kerr , in his programmes but his character never said it. It seems to be English in origin; certainly it was widely used outside of areas where Australians were. 'Stone me' may be like 'God strike me!' another old cry; so meaning 'May God strike me down" , if I lie or wrongly deny or doubt this. Stoning to death would be an alternative ! One Q and A site suggests the 'crows' bit is added by Australians to suggest an absurdity which just as incredible an event as that just described to the speaker. He cites 'speed the wombats' as another of this kind of mocking doubt.
