Best Wishes to
Zamyrabyrd and her family!
Time has been at a premium these past months, so I have not always had a chance to grumble here!
"Queer duck" is an expression which always seemed rather British to me: I cannot find much about it (at the moment) on the Internet, but do recall it being used in 19th-century writing, both British and American. It also seems that I recall it from a
Humphrey Bogart movie, but cannot find a reference.
A person from England recently wrote to me about the phrase "wagging the head," which the writer found very odd, because the writer thought (perhaps was taught) that it could only be used for tails. Heads can be shaken and nodded, but not "wagged."
However, it seems authors have had no problem with the phrase: I recall it being used by
Alma Mahler in the (
Basil Creighton ) translation of her
Mahler memories to describe
Schoenberg at the chaos connected with a performance of his op. 7.
I always heard it during Good Friday services or in late Lenten Masses, for it is used in a description of the Crucifixion, as Jewish leaders pass by the cross and are described as "wagging their heads" in disgust or in an "I-Told-You-So" fashion:
From an updated King James Version:
Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left. (39) And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, (40) And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself.
https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Matthew-27-39/My
American Heritage Dictionary also has no problem with the phrase, the "wagging" showing disappointment, disgust, or embarrassment.
What say ye?
