I ordered some decals for my Formula from an eBay vendor and had them mailed to a US address just across the border. When I crossed into the States from Canada the American border agent wanted to know why I was coming across. I told him I was picking up some decals that I had bought online. He gave me a blank look. He then asked me to describe what exactly I was picking up, which I did. Without saying anything further he barks at me... "DEE-CALS!" and lets me proceed.
I don't know if he was just having some fun (these guys don't normally have a sense of humour ), or if he was actually miffed that I was pronouncing the word differently than he does.
So, now I'm curious. Where were you brought up, and how do you pronounce it... deck-els or dee-cals?
I was in the printing industry for over 30 years and always heard it pronounced DEE-Cals, even when I worked in New England. The only variant I ever heard was Stickers. Guess that came from Bumper Stickers.
Never heard it pronounced deck-als, just variations of dee-cals. Here in Oklahoma it's even more dee-cals than in other places. For instance, insurance isn't in-shur-ance, it's INN shurance. Two separate words.
I was born and grew up in Toronto. Up there it is pronounced Deckels. My family and friends up there still pronounce it that way. South of the border it is pronounced Deecals. Harry
So where were you brought up? With the tag of FieroMontreal, I doubt you were raised in Buffalo NY.
Yeah I was brought up in Montreal, Canada however I now reside 5 minutes from Buffalo, NY. It's just easier for me to say Buffalo then the name of a small Canadian town that servs of cottage country to Buffalo, NY.
Canadians can't hide as their words often give them away Eh!
I just heard an old joke the other day. It was how Canada got its name. Three guys names Cale, Nick and Dave discovered Canada and they needed to name it. The one said lets use our initials.
It will be C Eh N Eh d Eh.
I live just on the other side of the Lake Erie and it is amazing how similar but different things can be. They are clean and polite but talk different.
I will never forget the first time a guy asked me for deckels for his Z/28. I though he has a speech problem.
There is no wrong way just different ways. As the old saying goes you are only as smart as where you are from. Think about that and keep you stick on the ice.
At least Duck Tape is the same.
[This message has been edited by hyperv6 (edited 08-21-2015).]
Maybe you guys have a special tape to use on waterfowl down there, but to fix everything up here we use Duct Tape!
Duck tape made here in Avon, OH. I pass the plant on my way to work every day. We even have a Duck Tape festival here every year! This is from Wiki.
The first material called "duck tape" was long strips of plain cotton duck cloth used in making shoes stronger, for decoration on clothing, and for wrapping steel cables or electrical conductors to protect them from corrosion or wear.[2] For instance, in 1902, steel cables supporting the Brooklyn Bridge were first covered in linseed oil then wrapped in duck tape before being laid in place.[3] In the 1910s, certain boots and shoes used canvas duck fabric for the upper or for the insole, and duck tape was sometimes sewn in for reinforcement.[4] In 1936, the US-based Insulated Power Cables Engineers Association specified a wrapping of duck tape as one of many methods used to protect rubber-insulated power cables.[5] In 1942, Gimbel's department store offered venetian blinds that were held together with vertical strips of duck tape.[6] All of these foregoing uses were for plain cotton or linen tape that came without a layer of applied adhesive.
Adhesive tapes of various sorts were in use by the 1910s, including rolls of cloth tape with adhesive coating one side. White adhesive tape made of cloth soaked in rubber and zinc oxide was used in hospitals to bind wounds, but other tapes such as friction tape or electrical tape could be substituted in an emergency.[7] In 1930, the magazine Popular Mechanics described how to make adhesive tape at home using plain cloth tape soaked in a heated liquid mixture of rosin and rubber from inner tubes.[8]
In 1923, Richard Gurley Drew working for 3M invented masking tape, a paper-based tape with a mildly sticky adhesive. In 1925 this became the Scotch brand masking tape. In 1930, Drew developed a transparent tape based on cellophane, called Scotch Tape. This tape was widely used beginning in the Great Depression to repair household items.[9] Author Scott Berkun has written that duct tape is "arguably" a modification of this early success by 3M.[10] However, neither of Drew's inventions was based on cloth tape.[9]
The idea for what became duct tape came from Vesta Stoudt, an ordinance-factory worker and mother of two Navy sailors, who worried that problems with ammunition box seals would cost soldiers precious time in battle. She wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1943 with the idea to seal the boxes with a fabric tape, which she had tested at her factory.[11] The letter was forwarded to the War Production Board, who put Johnson & Johnson on the job.[12] The Revolite division of Johnson & Johnson had made medical adhesive tapes from duck cloth from 1927 and a team headed by Revolite's Johnny Denoye and Johnson & Johnson's Bill Gross developed the new adhesive tape,[13] designed to be ripped by hand, not cut with scissors.
Their new unnamed product was made of thin cotton duck tape coated in waterproof polyethylene (plastic) with a layer of rubber-based gray adhesive ("Polycoat") bonded to one side.[6][14][15][16][17][18] It was easy to apply and remove, and was soon adapted to repair military equipment quickly, including vehicles and weapons.[14] This tape, colored in army-standard matte olive drab, was nicknamed "duck tape" by the soldiers.[19] Various theories have been put forward for the nickname, including the descendant relation to cotton duck fabric, the waterproof characteristics of a duck bird, and even the 1942 amphibious military vehicle DUKW which was pronounced "duck".[20]
After the war, the duck tape product was sold in hardware stores for household repairs. The Melvin A. Anderson Company of Cleveland, Ohio, acquired the rights to the tape in 1950.[15] It was commonly used in construction to wrap air ducts.[19] Following this application, the name "duct tape" came into use in the 1950s, along with tape products that were colored silvery gray like tin ductwork. Specialized heat- and cold-resistant tapes were developed for heating and air-conditioning ducts. By 1960 a St. Louis, Missouri, HVAC company, Albert Arno, Inc., trademarked the name "Ductape" for their "flame-resistant" duct tape, capable of holding together at 350–400 °F (177–204 °C).[21]
In 1971, Jack Kahl bought the Anderson firm and renamed it Manco.[15] In 1975, Kahl rebranded the duct tape made by his company. Because the previously used generic term "duck tape" had fallen out of use, he was able to trademark the brand "Duck Tape" and market his product complete with a yellow cartoon duck logo. In 1979, the Duck Tape marketing plan involved sending out greeting cards with the duck branding, four times a year, to 32,000 hardware managers. This mass of communication combined with colorful, convenient packaging helped Duck Tape become popular. From a near-zero customer base Manco eventually controlled 40% of the duct tape market in the US.[16][22]
After profiting from Scotch Tape in the 1930s, 3M produced military materiel during WWII, and by 1946 had developed the first practical vinyl electrical tape.[23] By 1977, the company was selling a heat-resistant duct tape for heating ducts.[24] In the late 1990s, 3M was running a $300 million duct tape division, the US industry leader.[25] In 2004, 3M invented a transparent duct tape.[26]
According to the corporate history, during WWII the U.S. government commissioned Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Permacel to develop a heavy-duty tape that could keep water out of ammunition cases. J&J responded with a drab-colored, cloth-backed tape that was strong, easy to tear and, of course, waterproof. GIs purportedly nicknamed it “duck tape” because water beaded off the tape just like droplets slipping down a duck’s back. (What’s more, the fabric layered into the tape was called “cotton duck.”)
As the story goes, during the postwar suburban housing boom, contractors who installed heating and air conditioning discovered duck tape was handy in patching ducts, too. Soon, the green tape gave way to the silvery-gray stuff that better matched sheet aluminum, and the “duct” name ... stuck. As the tape had never been patented, scores of brands were making it, and only when faced with the need to differentiate did Manco trademark the Duck name, going so far as to develop a corresponding duck mascot for the packaging, rendered by a former Disney cartoonist.
Interesting. I now know more about tape than I ever wanted to know.
I think the term "duck" tape is much more an Americanism. I have never heard it called that in Canada. It's always been "duct" tape. Whenever I've seen reference in the forums here to "duck" tape, I always figured the person posting was slightly hearing impaired. Either that and/or they couldn't spell.
Interesting. I now know more about tape than I ever wanted to know.
I think the term "duck" tape is much more an Americanism. I have never heard it called that in Canada. It's always been "duct" tape. Whenever I've seen reference in the forums here to "duck" tape, I always figured the person posting was slightly hearing impaired. Either that and/or they couldn't spell.
It is more trademarked.
I have also heard it called Anchor Tape and some other names.
It is like Velcro and Kleenex Both names are registered trade marks of one brand. The public has taken to calling it that no matter the brand but if you read other MFG labels they will call it Hook and Loop and Tissue.
I think the Duct got going because it was not registered and the two names sounding so much alike most people just never notice or even know. It all comes down to the company in Avon started it and the original name was Duck but no one else is permitted to use that name commercially.
In most cases Duct has a stronger use since there are so many companies making it. The truth is you really don't want to use it on Ducts.
For years it was called Racer Tape and someone now has that trademarked.
Also there is a tape out that is clear and nearly impossible to puncture. It is called Helicopter tape. It was developed for Chopper blades in the middle east and protect them on the leading edge from Sand. Some called it 200 MPG tape for a while in NASCAR and Indy Car.
Now we have Bear Bond.
When it comes to trademarks these things can become sticky. Some people really get stuck for new names in many cases, But then just let it roll.
[This message has been edited by hyperv6 (edited 08-22-2015).]
Interesting. I now know more about tape than I ever wanted to know.
I think the term "duck" tape is much more an Americanism. I have never heard it called that in Canada. It's always been "duct" tape. Whenever I've seen reference in the forums here to "duck" tape, I always figured the person posting was slightly hearing impaired. Either that and/or they couldn't spell.
Or just poor pronunciation. How many people pronounce the difference (or hear the difference) between "our" and "are", "then" and "than" or even "of" and "have?" We see those mixed up enough in text to know a lot of people don't know the difference in the words and are just typing roughly what they've heard.
Originally posted by Formula88: Or just poor pronunciation. How many people pronounce the difference (or hear the difference) between "our" and "are", "then" and "than" or even "of" and "have?" We see those mixed up enough in text to know a lot of people don't know the difference in the words and are just typing roughly what they've heard.
Definitely poor pronunciation. Duck Tape is a brand of duct tape. It even clearly says on the packaging that it is duct tape. The generic product is duct tape (primarily used for ducts, obviously), and there are many manufacturers, of which, Duck is a single maker/brand. There are similar cloth based tapes which are not duct tape, and which Duck brand does not produce and market as "Duck Tape" either. Duck cloth is also rarely used as the base for such tapes any more. Most use synthetic fiber these days, such as nylon.
And yeah, people mess up grammar, spelling, and pronunciation a lot more these days, than we used to. Heavy population growth, ubiquitous global Internet access, and an ever-widening income gap, have all had effects on language.
Definitely poor pronunciation. Duck Tape is a brand of duct tape. It even clearly says on the packaging that it is duct tape. The generic product is duct tape (primarily used for ducts, obviously), and there are many manufacturers, of which, Duck is a single maker/brand. There are similar cloth based tapes which are not duct tape, and which Duck brand does not produce and market as "Duck Tape" either. Duck cloth is also rarely used as the base for such tapes any more. Most use synthetic fiber these days, such as nylon.
And yeah, people mess up grammar, spelling, and pronunciation a lot more these days, than we used to. Heavy population growth, ubiquitous global Internet access, and an ever-widening income gap, have all had effects on language.
Agree, but how much emphasis do you put on the "t" in Duct to differentiate it from the "t' in tape? In typical speech it would be pronounced like a single word, ducttape.
I always heard it called duct tape...as it was tape used to seal panels in AC ducts. Really in AC and heating ducts...the 'real' duct tape is self adhesive metal (heavy foil). Duck is a brand name missused like Kleenex...also a brand, not a product.
), or if he was actually miffed that I was pronouncing the word differently than he does. 
