Noun: duke
Sample Sentences
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Put up your dukes!
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“Your friend sure knows how to use his dukes. Biff, bang! One, two, and the copʼs on his ass!” [1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Penguin Books (2014), page 438:]
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"How did the sport go."
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"O sparred a few rounds. Let the instructor have a few on the button."
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"You must be tough."
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"I can handle my dukes." [1963, J P Donleavy, A Singular Man, published 1963 (USA), page 19:]
Nouns inflected like duke
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Indo-European *dewk-
3. Proto-Indo-European *déwkti
4. Proto-Italic *doukō
5. Latin dūcō
6. Proto-Indo-European *-s
7. Latin -s
8. Latin dux, ducemlbor.
9. Old French ducder.
10. English duke
11. From Old French duc, through Middle English duk, duke, from Latin dux, ducis. Displaced native Old English heretoga. Was present as duc in late Old English, from the same Latin source. Doublet of doge, duc, duce, and dux. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dewk-, which is also the source of the second component in German Herzog.
12. The “fist” sense is thought to be Cockney rhyming slang where “Duke(s) of York” = fork. Fork is itself Cockney slang for hand, and thus fist. See: Middle English Nouns '
duk', Latin Nouns '
dux', Old English Nouns '
heretoga'.
Verbs referencing "duke"
Irish Nouns
diúc.