'In an Attack, Duct Tape and Plastic Sheeting Can Provide Solace, if Not Real Security'' ran a five-column headline in The New York Times. Above it, a picture showed two large rolls of the wide adhesive tape in a shopping cart, each clearly labeled ''DUCK tape,'' spelled with a k.

Americans worried about protecting themselves from biological or chemical attack queried this department with a much less pressing concern: which is it, duct tape or duck tape? Perhaps there is solace in spelling.

Comedians know that the word duck, like banana, strikes many people as funny. In the first Marx Brothers feature film, the 1929 ''Cocoanuts,'' Groucho explains to Chico the plans to develop and auction Florida land by saying, ''And here is the viaduct leading over to the mainland.'' Focusing on viaduct, Chico asks: ''Why a duck? Why a no chicken?'' The line achieved film immortality, and a subsequent Marx Brothers film was titled ''Duck Soup.''

Most people believe that the waterproof adhesive product is properly called duct tape for two reasons. First, duct -- from the Latin ducere, ''to lead'' -- is used in aquaduct, ''to conduct water''; viaduct, ''to conduct cars or trains along the way over a valley or gorge'' (Why a no chicken?); and air-conditioning duct, ''to conduct cool air.'' The wide waterproof tape is used to patch, or to hold together sections of, these conductors of cooled or heated air.