A Drake Is a Male Duck, and the Female Has No Name
A drake is a male duck. English gives the male his own word but calls the female simply a duck.
A drake is a male duck. The naming is lopsided: the male gets a word of his own, while the female is just a *duck*, the same word as the species. English does the same with foxes, where the male is a *fox* and the female a *vixen*, but reversed — sometimes the general name goes to the male, sometimes to the female, with no rule behind it. In Old English *draca* meant a dragon, an unrelated word that also survives in *fire drake*.
- A male duck. *A mallard drake.*
- Duck — the female, or the species. *A female duck.*
- Duckling — the young. *A line of ducklings.*
- Drake — a dragon, archaic. *A fire drake.*
- Mallard — the commonest species. *A mallard drake.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | drake | One drake. |
| Plural | drakes | Two drakes. |
| Female | duck | A duck. |
| Young | duckling | A duckling. |
| Archaic | drake | A fire drake. |
- The drake has the green head.Mallards.
- Three ducks and a drake on the pond.Counting.
- Ducks and drakes is a stone-skimming game.Idiom.
Male and female animal names
- Duck / drake — the general word is female
- Fox / vixen — the general word is male
- Goose / gander — the general word is female
- Horse / mare / stallion — a separate word for each
- Sheep / ewe / ram — the same three-word pattern
Middle English *drake*, probably from a shortened Germanic compound meaning duck-king. The dragon sense is a separate word from Latin *draco*.
What is a female duck called?
Just a duck. English has no separate word for her, though a young one is a duckling.
What is playing ducks and drakes?
Skimming stones across water. As an idiom it also means treating something recklessly.