mallard
(ˈmæləd)
Forms: 4 maular, 4–5 mawlard, maulard(e, 4–6 malarde, 4, 8 malard, 5 malerde, mavelard, maud-, mawdelard(e, 5–6 mallarde, 6 mallert, mallerde, 7 mallerd, mallet, 4– mallard.
[a. OF. malart, mallart wild drake; of obscure origin.
The conjecture given in Hatz.-Darm. that it represents the OHG. male proper name Madelhart is remarkably supported by the evidence of the Eng. form maud-, mawdelard, which, however, has not been found in OF. The bird may under this name have figured as a personage in some lost example of the Germanic ‘beast-epic’. Another hypothesis is that the word is f. OF. masle, male male a. + -art, -ard; but against this there is the objection that the form maslart does not occur until late, though the word is recorded from the 12th c.]
1. The male of the wild duck (Anas boscas). † Formerly often applied also to the male of the domesticated variety; = drake2.
| c 1330 Arth. & Merl. 4140 Þe cherl bent his bowe sone & smot a doke mididone, & wiþ a bolt afterward Anon he hitt a maulard. 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 563/46 Anatus, a mallard. 1533–4 Act 25 Hen. VIII, c. 11 §1 Duckes, mallardes, wigeons, teales, wildgeese and diuers other kinde of wildfowle. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 383 To stay a flux of the belly, the bloud of Mallards or Drakes is thought also to be singular good. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. iii. x. 20 The Noble ruine of her Magicke, Anthony, Claps on his Sea-wing, and (like a doting Mallard)..flyes after her. 1776 Ann. Reg. 152 The old duck left them [the eggs], but soon after returned with the mallard. 1861 G. F. Berkeley Sportsm. W. Prairies xx. 332, I walked to within shot of some straggling wild ducks, and killed a very fine mallard. 1893 Newton Dict. Birds 168 Technically the term Duck is restricted to the female, the male being called Drake, and in one species Mallard. |
2. a. Used for either sex: A wild drake or duck. † Formerly also applied to the domestic variety.
| 1314 in Wardr. Acc. 8 Edw. II 21/12, 1 mallard 4½d. 1348 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 43 In v Mallard domestic. et v Mallard de Ryuer et xiiij perdicibus, iiijs. xd. ob. c 1400 Siege of Troy 1070 in Archiv neu. Spr. LXXII. 38 Plover, partriche and wyld Bores..With Malardes wylde and fesaunt. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 181 Anoynte þe place wiþ grece of a maulard. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 27 With þo grece of þo mawdelarde þou sethe hom. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 323/1 Malarde, byrde (or mavelarde). 1486 Bk. St. Albans d ij b, Take a tame Malarde and set hym in a fayr playn. 1502 Arnolde Chron. 91 Also yf ony persone kepe or norrysh hoggis oxen kyen or mallardis with in the ward in noyng of ther neyhbours. 1657 Tomlinson Renou's Disp. i. viii. 13 The Mallet [rendering of L. anas]. 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 138 ¶8 Shooting mallards in the fens. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. III. 283 The Mallard is probably the stock of which our tame breed is the product. 1860 Gosse Rom. Nat. Hist. 199 Our own wild-duck or mallard is a shy bird. 1894 J. Skelton Table-t. Shirley (1895) 64 The frost is so hard that woodcock and mallard are driven from inland copses and marshes to the open springs. |
b. The flesh of this bird.
| c 1440 Douce MS. 55 lf. 14 Cast it in a pott and fressh broth..and of canell and [dropping Harl. 4016] of the malarde & lete hem buille. 14.. in Househ. Ord. (1790) 441 Sause neyger for Maudelard roasted. 1513 Bk. Keruynge in Babees Bk. 278 In the fyrst course, potage, befe,..with goose, capon, mallarde, swanne, or fesande. 1555 W. Watreman Fardle Facions i. v. 53 Quaile, and mallard, are not but for the richer sorte. 1607 Dekker & Webster Westw. Hoe i. i, They..loue Mallard and Teale in the fall, and Woodcocke in winter. |
c. attrib., as mallard call, mallard decoy, mallard drake, mallard duck, mallard-shooting.
| 1772 J. R. Forster in Phil. Trans. LXII. 419 Anas. 53 Boschas..Mallard Drake. 1852 R. Glisan Jrnl. Army Life (1874) ix. 102 A fine mallard duck suddenly flew up. 1874 J. W. Long Amer. Wild-Fowl Shooting xiv. 186 Morning and evening mallard-shooting. Ibid. xix. 214 They decoy exceedingly well to mallard decoys, and come readily to the mallard call. |
3. the Mallard: a festival celebrated on the 14th Jan. at All Souls College, Oxford (see quots.). Also attrib.
| 1632 Abp. Abbot in M. Burrows Worthies All Souls viii. (1874) 126 Civil men should never so far forget themselves under pretence of a foolish Mallard as to do things barbarously unbecoming. 1722–3 Hearne Diary 18 Jan., Last Monday, the 14th inst...was All Souls college Mallard, at which time 'tis usual with the fellows and their friends to have a supper, and to sit up all night drinking and singing. Their song is the mallard, and formerly they used to ramble about the college with sticks and poles, &c. in quest of the mallard... They tell you the custom arose from a swinging old mallard, that had been lost at the foundation of the college, and found many years after in the sink. 1801 Bp. Heber Let. 15 Jan. in Life (1830) I. 25 A very severe cold which I caught by getting out of bed..to see the celebration of the famous All Souls' mallard feast... I had thus a full view of the Lord Mallard and about forty fellows, in a kind of procession on the library roof. 1899 C. G. Robertson All Souls Coll. 102 The song of the mallard (which is still sung at the college Gaudies). |