buck
Buck, a male deer or goat, is inherited from Old English; buck, the marker passed round in poker, is probably short for a buckhorn knife.[1][2][3]
Pronunciation
- IPA: /bʌk/[4]
buck1 male animal
Etymology
It is inherited from Old English bucca (“male goat”) (before 830, in the Vespasian Psalter),[1][2] from *bukkōn,[1][2] cognate with Old Saxon buck, Dutch bok, German Bock and Old Norse bukkr.[1][2][5] It is perhaps from an Indo-European word also seen in Avestan būza- and Armenian buc “lamb”,[2][5] though some think it comes from a lost pre-Germanic language,[2] and Merriam-Webster notes the similar Celtic words (Old Irish boc), perhaps by borrowing.[3] Barnhart regards the often-cited Old English buc “male deer” as a ghost word.[1][2]
Earliest recorded meaning
A male goat, before 830; the sense moved to the male deer by about 1300.[1][2]
Semantic evolution
Buck was applied to a man from 1303,[6] and to a fashionable, dashing young man from 1725;[2][5] it was also used, disparagingly, of a Native American man from about 1800 and of a Black man from 1835.[2] Buck private (1870s) may come from this sense.[2] The verb, of a horse leaping with an arched back, is from 1848, first in an Australian book, apparently “to jump like a buck”;[1][2] its figurative sense, to resist stubbornly, is from 1857, perhaps influenced by an earlier buck “to butt” (1750).[1][2] Buck up, to cheer up, is from 1844.[1][2] The slang sense “dollar” (1856, American) is probably from buckskin used as a unit of trade with Native Americans and frontiersmen (1748).[1][2]
Timeline
- before 830 – a male goat.[1]
- c. 1300 – a male deer.[1][2]
- 1725 – a dashing young man.[2]
- 1844 – buck up.[1][2]
- 1848 – to buck (of a horse).[1][2]
- 1856 – a dollar.[1][2]
- 1857 – to resist.[1]
Modern meaning
Noun
- The adult male of some animals, such as the deer, antelope, goat or rabbit.
- (archaic) A spirited young man; a fop.
- (informal) A dollar; an amount of money.
Verb
- Of a horse, to leap upward with the back arched, often to throw its rider.
- To resist or oppose stubbornly.
Word family
- buckskin
- buckshot
buck2 poker marker
Etymology
It is probably short for an earlier buckhorn knife, a knife with a handle of buck's horn used as a counter in poker.[3][1][2]
Earliest recorded meaning
In poker, an object put in the jackpot to show whose turn it is to deal: pass the buck is recorded in this literal sense in 1865.[2][3]
Semantic evolution
The figurative pass the buck, to shift responsibility to someone else, is first recorded in 1912, in American English,[1][2][7] and the buck stops here (1952) is associated with President Harry Truman.[2]
Timeline
- 1865 – the poker marker.[2][3]
- 1912 – pass the buck (figurative).[1][2]
- 1952 – the buck stops here.[2]
Modern meaning
Noun
- A counter or marker formerly passed from one poker player to another to show whose turn it is to deal.
- pass the buck: to shift responsibility or blame to someone else.
Related words
- goat
- sawbuck
Usage notes
A third buck, a sawhorse (1817, American English), was apparently borrowed from Dutch bok, trestle, and spelled after the animal word.[1][2]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press