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| Home | > | Informative | > | Origin of a Cliche |
Origin of a Cliche
This assignment aimed to give us experience at informative writing on an interesting factoid.
"Passing the Buck"
The phrase “passing the buck”, a commonly used cliché which means “to pass responsibility onto someone else”, has an origin that is unknown to many people. When Americans think of “buck,” they most likely think of the slang term for the U.S. dollar. Both terms share a common origin: the game of poker.
During the second half of the 19 th Century, poker became a very popular game. People played poker very frequently, and with the increase in play came the inevitable increase in cheating. In order to make cheating less possible, players began to institute a rule where after each hand, the dealer would change. When a person was dealing, the next person in line to deal would be given a marker indicating so. Usually, this was a knife. Knives often had handles made of a buck's (male deer's) horn. The marker became known as the “buck”, and when a person began to deal, he gave the knife to the next person in line, thus “passing the buck” to the next dealer. Later, silver dollars were used in place of knives, but the term “buck” stuck. That is most likely why we associate the term “buck” with a U.S. dollar today.
The earliest citation of the phrase in print is from the Weekly New Mexican, July 1865: "They draw at the commissary, and at poker after they have passed the buck.". This is most likely around the time that the phrase was coined as references were numerous in following years. This is also the origin of the phrase “The buck stops here”, which was a campaign promise during Harry Truman's re-election in 1948. President Truman put a sign with the phrase on his desk as a sign that he was taking responsibility for both failures and successes. Thus, three different phrases can track their origin to the same place.
This assignment aimed to give us experience at informative writing on an interesting factoid.
"Passing the Buck"
The phrase “passing the buck”, a commonly used cliché which means “to pass responsibility onto someone else”, has an origin that is unknown to many people. When Americans think of “buck,” they most likely think of the slang term for the U.S. dollar. Both terms share a common origin: the game of poker.
During the second half of the 19 th Century, poker became a very popular game. People played poker very frequently, and with the increase in play came the inevitable increase in cheating. In order to make cheating less possible, players began to institute a rule where after each hand, the dealer would change. When a person was dealing, the next person in line to deal would be given a marker indicating so. Usually, this was a knife. Knives often had handles made of a buck's (male deer's) horn. The marker became known as the “buck”, and when a person began to deal, he gave the knife to the next person in line, thus “passing the buck” to the next dealer. Later, silver dollars were used in place of knives, but the term “buck” stuck. That is most likely why we associate the term “buck” with a U.S. dollar today.
The earliest citation of the phrase in print is from the Weekly New Mexican, July 1865: "They draw at the commissary, and at poker after they have passed the buck.". This is most likely around the time that the phrase was coined as references were numerous in following years. This is also the origin of the phrase “The buck stops here”, which was a campaign promise during Harry Truman's re-election in 1948. President Truman put a sign with the phrase on his desk as a sign that he was taking responsibility for both failures and successes. Thus, three different phrases can track their origin to the same place.
Source: The Phrase Finder
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