411 REFERENCE · Wiktionary
Lord love a duck
Reference material by Wiktionary contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
English
Etymology
Variant of earlier (18th century) en Lord love you, en God love someone God love us, etc (present subjunctive), used as exclamation of exasperation or surprise.love v.1 110568 June 2008 The significance of the duck is unknown.Lord love a duck http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-lor1.htm 23 July, 2016 Attested from the late 19th century.eext2ya#z4eeuci lord love...!
Interjection
An exclamation of surprise.
en lawdamercy
en 1913 Ian Hay The Writings of Ian Hay "Lord love a duck!" he observed in a dazed voice — "What's this?"
en 2000 Noreen Wald Death Never Takes a Holiday Gypsy Rose passed me a tuna on rye. "Lord love a duck, I hope she's not Carita Magenta's ghost.
References