non-monetary "buck"

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:57 PM -0500 8/15/04, Gordon, Matthew J. wrote:
>We've probably noted this usage on the list earlier, but I couldn't
>find it in the archives:
>The use of "buck" in numerical expressions where it means one or a
>hundred. I associate it with sports "journalism". So, e.g. a
>pitcher's ERA might be given as "a buck thirty three" (=1.33) or
>someone's weight might be "a buck twenty" (=120 lbs.).
>
>I heard an potentially confusing extension of this usage today. It
>appeared on a TV program aimed at teenagers and featuring 30
>somethings trying to speak like teenagers. Anyway, at one point the
>price of a certain must-have electronic item was given as "a buck
>seventy" which I found surprisingly cheap until I realized the
>speaker meant $170.

Yes, this is fairly well established; at the poker table, 30 bucks =
$3000.  As for the extended, non-monetary uses, we discussed those in
an extended thread in Feb. 1995.  I described it at the time as an
instance of ESPN English, with references to batting average, weight,
distance to the pin (in golf), time (in hours), bowling scores, etc.,
but others chimed in with non-sports uses, including J. Russell King,
who mentioned the use of "buck" for columns among older editors at
the N. Y. Times: 'a story is "a buck and a quarter" when it is 1.25
columns long".'

larry