Short takes: Blind-man's bluff

Tue Mar 16 08:16:53 UTC 2010

Stupid question, perhaps, but I am wondering if "Blind-man's bluff"
may be a somewhat ancient eggcorn version of "Blind-man's buff".

OED has only BUFF and dates it back to 1600 for a children's game
involving a blindfold (1590 in fig. sense, with 1700 for the verbed
version). Nothing on the BLUFF version, although it can easily be
tracked to 1783 (perhaps earlier with some creative searches, but I
was just doing brute force this time). Current Google counts are
nearly identical (~400K with slight preference for BLUFF). Many of the
BLUFF hits also refer to the game, although the number in this context
is far smaller than in the BUFF version, as Blind-man's Bluff has
multiple uses.

Lemon's 1783 English Etymology has an index entry for BLUFF ==
blindfold; blind-man's bluff. BUFF is connected to BUFFALO. Also, "in
buff", is linked with "naked" under CUERPO.

Yet, GB finds no other verbatim hits for BMBluff after that until
1845, ten more between 1845 and 1872, then the floodgates open.

In contrast, there are 310 raw GB hits for the BUFF version, although
some number are unverifiable (unscanned) or mistagged. It is important
enough to be included among the many idiomatic expressions that serve
as entries in 1732 English-Irish Dictionary. There are also several
entries for BUFF, but not for BLUFF.
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZV49AAAAYAAJ

There is a reference to the children's game (BUFF) in the Vicar of
Wakefield (cited in OED, 1766).

> Mr. Burchell, who was of the party, was always fond of seeing some innocent amusement going forward, and set the boys and girls to blind-man's buff.

It is also in 1744 commentary on Hudibras (it's amazing how these
things keep popping up on this list--this is the third time I am
referring to Hudibras) which cites Butler from 1649-50:

> The /Wizard/ perhaps may do much at /Hot-Cockles/,  and Blind-Man's Buff ; but I durst undertake to poze him in a Riddle, and his Intelligence in a Dog in a Wheel : ...
http://books.google.com/books?id=Pto0AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA16

It's also in text in Canto III, line 45:
> Disguis'd in all the mask of night,
> We left our champion on his flight,
> At blind-man's buff, to grope his way.

It also pops up in Fanshaw's translation of The Faithful Shepherd.

So the use, particularly in terms of the game, is rather well
established long before the BLUFF version is even attested.

An 1829 volume on games and recreations still has the BUFF version.
The boy's own book: a complete encyclopedia of all the diversions,
athletic, scientific, and recreative, of boyhood and youth.
http://books.google.com/books?id=XiMOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA30

Dictionaries that mention the game usually suggest that BUFF here
comes from v. BUFFET == to strike out (hence, Butler's "groping in the
dark"). Not all dictionaries mention the connection, of course, or
have a separate entry for BUFF or for BMB. But prior to 1850, there
are far more of these than references to BLUFF as anything other than
coastal cliffs. In fact, Lemon is the only one I found.

So, where did the "bluff" version come from? Was Lemon's use just a misprint?

OED BLUFF n.2 1. actually may hold a hint to the second question.

1777 DARWIN Squinting in Phil. Trans. LXVIII. 88 Bluffs used on
coach-horses. 1881 EVANS Leicestersh. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Bluft, anything
used to cover the eyes, such as a blinker for a horse, a board
fastened in front of the eyes of a bull or cow to prevent its running,
the handkerchief used to bandage the eyes in blind-man's-buff, etc.

The first citation slightly pre-dates Lemon. The second one is over a
hundred years later--well after both versions of the game name
coexisted side by side. In fact, it actually cites the game, but as
BUFF.

Poker is attested in OED form 1836 and I quickly found an 1837
reference to "the fashionable game of poker" in EAN, along with the
original OED 1836 cite in GB (OED citation misses important
context--the line in the book has a footnote that states that poker is
a card game popular in south and west). Bluff, esp. in poker, in OED
(n.2 3.a.) is attested from 1846 (so my earliest non-dictionary find
already predates that slightly).

It seems possible, if not likely, that the "bluff", particularly as it
was initially used in poker (before it spread more generally) may have
influenced the name of the children's game. There seems to be little
other reason for the change, given the timing.

1848 Webster's adds "blustering" to the more common definitions (big,
surly) of BLUFF--likely just copying Johnson. Nothing under BUFF and
BMBuff is a separate entry.

The first dictionary connection since Lemon comes in 1850.
http://books.google.com/books?id=hh0tAAAAYAAJ

Here, there is a reference to "Blufters" being identified as Horse
Blinkers regionally (Lincolnshire). BLUFF is also cited as a verb that
does mean "to blindfold" and perhaps "to hoodwink", but, again, the
use is regional--after all, this is the first edition of
Halliwell-Phillipps dialectal dictionary. But contrary to connecting
the two, these entries seem to suggest the opposite--the use of BLUFF
in the sense of blindfold was limited and extremely isolated
(regionally in England, no less) and was highly unlikely to have
contributed to evolution of BLUFF in the US where poker was being
played or to the far broader change that involved the children's game,
coincidentally with blindfold.

I am second-guessing the OED here, but there seems to be a direct
connection between BLUFF adj. 1.a-e., adj. 2.a-b. and n.2 3.a and
absolutely NO connection between n.2 1. (which seems to be
Lincolnshire use, consistent with Lemon) and n.2 3.a, except in a
reversal for the second citation (1881). In other words, the two cites
under 1. are unrelated, just as Lemon's definition of BLUFF as
blindfold is unrelated to the use of BLUFF in poker, but may have been
related to Lincolnshire usage.

OED BLUFF adj. 2.a. is just Johnson's and Webster's definition, parts
of which can be found in other 18th and 19th century dictionaries
(usually big and surly, almost never blustering). Taking blustering a
bit further and looking even at the OED definition of n.2 3.a.,
"boasting" means essentially the same thing--to bluff in poker is to
inflate, to boast a hand, to add bluster. There is no evidence that
this is in any way connected to BLIND, except in later version of draw
poker that are sometimes referred to as Indian Bluff or Indian Poker
("Indian" because holding a card over your head resembles aboriginal
headgear). But that came /later/ and developed in the US, so it could
not have been derived from it!!! Although there is some blind bidding
in poker, bidding blind is exactly the /opposite/ of bluffing.

So there may be at least two things going on here. There is the
development of a new game with its own terminology that drops an
eggcorn into an old game with fairly well established terminology AND
there is evolution of the new game itself, which adds extra meaning to
the terms as the game evolves. It seems that even the original OED
fell for the eggcorn in its time, but it had help, because of a small
dialectal variation. The two citations under n.2 1. should be
separated for sure--they are historically unrelated and do not
correspond to the same meaning (Lemon notwithstanding).

VS-)

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