Where did the term 'pass the buck' originate?

Answer 1

It was a practice common among native Americans. There were swinging single clubs among certain tribes where men were passed around from one squaw to another, hence the term "Passing the Buck." I hope this helps.

Answer 2

Look up buck in the dictionary and you'll find a couple of dozen assorted nouns, verbs and adjectives. The most common use of the word these days is as the slang term for the American dollar. That's not the buck meant here though. Look a little further down the list and you'll find 'buck - an article used in a game of poker', and that's the buck that's passed.

Poker became very popular in America during the second half of the 19th century. Players were highly suspicious of cheating or any form of bias and there's considerable folklore depicting gunslingers in shoot-outs based on accusations of dirty dealing. In order to avoid unfairness the deal changed hands during sessions. The person who was next in line to deal would be given a marker. This was often a knife, and knives often had handles made of buck's horn - hence the marker becoming known as a buck. When the dealer's turn was done he 'passed the buck'.

Silver dollars were later used as markers and this is probably the origin of the use of buck as a slang term for dollar.

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 clearly around the time that the phrase was coined as there are many such references in the following years.

The best-known use of buck in this context is 'the buck stops here', which is the promise made by US president Harry S. Truman, and which he kept prominent in his own and his elector's minds by putting it on a sign on his desk.

Answer 3

Pass the buck - shift responsibility to someone else

A term from poker originating in the USA. A knife with a buckhorn handle, abbreviated to buck, was put in the jackpot; some other handy object could be used but it was still called 'the buck'. It was temporarily held by the winner of the jackpot, but when the deal reached him a new jackpot had to be made and the responsibility of holding the buck was passed on. One version of poker was called pass the buck.
In other versions the buck is placed on the table to indicate who the dealer is or whose turn it is to put an agreed sum into the pool. In either case the buck is then passed on clockwise.
Harry S. Truman, President of the USA from 1945-53 and a keen poker-player, had a sign on his desk 'The buck stops here'. Passing the buck had by this time come to signify an evasion or denial of responsibility. Originally it simply meant a passing on of accountability by rotation.

Answer 4

A buck in this sense is a marker used in poker. It is placed in front of the player who is to deal the next hand. To pass the buck is then to place responsibility on someone else. The buck stops here is a phrase which apparently originated with Harry Truman. He was a poker player, and he had a sign on his desk carrying the phrase the buck stops here, meaning that the dealer's buck would not be passed from him; that is, he held final authority. Interestingly, silver dollars were often used as bucks, hence the use of buck to mean `dollar.'

Answer 5

In poker, the buck or dealer button is a marker used to indicate the player who is dealing or, in casino games with a house dealer, the player who acts last on that deal (who would be the dealer in a home game). The term button is also used for a variety of plastic discs, or lammers, used by casinos to mark status of players.

When poker became a popular saloon game in the United States in the middle of the nineteenth century, the integrity of the players was unreliable and the honor codes that had regulated gambling for centuries became inadequate. Because the dealer has the greatest opportunity to cheat (by manipulating the specific cards that players receive, or by inspecting the dealt cards), the players would take turns in this role. To avoid arguments about whose turn it was to deal, the person who was next due to deal would be given a marker. A knife was a common object used as such a marker, and the marker became generally known as a buck as an abbreviated reference to the buck's horn that formed the handle of many knives at that time.

When the dealer had finished dealing the cards he "passes the buck". According to Martin, the earliest use of the phrase in print is in the July 1865 edition of Weekly New Mexican: "They draw at the commissary, and at poker after they have passed the buck.". The phrase then appears frequently in many sources so it probably originated at about this time. Fred M. Canfil, United States Marshal for the Western District of Missouri and a friend of US president Harry S. Truman, saw a sign visiting the Federal Reformatory at El Reno, Oklahoma in 1945. He thought it would appeal to the plain-speaking Truman and arranged for a copy of it to be made and sent to him. Truman's use of the slogan "the buck stops here" in speeches, and on a sign on his desk, derives from the adoption of the phrase "passing the buck" as a metaphor for avoiding responsibility.

The use of other small disks as such markers led to the alternative term "button". Silver dollars were later used as markers and it has been suggested that this is the origin of "buck" as a slang term for "dollar," though by no means is there universal agreement on this subject.

Answer 6

In colonial American during card games, the term, "pass the buck" came from the custom of passing a buckhorn knife as a way of keeping track of whose turn it was to deal or ante, and thus it is etymologically unrelated to "buck" as a slang term for dollar.

Answer 7

1920's
Truman said the buck stops here

Answer 8

Long cold lonely nights at deer camp.

Answer 9

http://www.takeourword.com/arc_logi.html