Short takes: Blind-man's bluff

Tue Mar 16 14:42:36 UTC 2010

You're undoubtedly right.  I grew up with "blind man's buff" (which made no
sense).  When I heard the "bluff" form, it was more sensible but sounded
wrong.

JL

On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 4:16 AM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Poster:       victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Short takes: Blind-man's bluff
>
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>
> 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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