Short takes: Blind-man's bluff

[victor steinbok]

Small correction--Boyer should go back to 1714, not 1756. Both Boyer
and Grieb use BLUFFE as a base, not BLUFF (doesn't make much
difference). Another variation is BLUFT as adj.

Webster's 1850 Primary school pronouncing dictionary lists BLUFF ==
swelled, blustering, but NOT big or surly.

In general, Bluff in the sense "blindfold" is limited to a prominent,
but fairly isolated line of dictionaries. It's a bit difficult to
judge so far removed, but given virtually complete absence from
published texts and re-appearance only on the pages of dialectal
dictionaries (including the 1881 Evans citation in OED), it seems to
have been a misrepresentation of a minor regional variation. It does
not appear in the US at all, so it is unlikely to be related to poker
terminology.

VS-)

On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 10:47 AM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
> I should have also noted that the verb "to BLUFF" == to blindfold or
> hoodwink that appeared in several dialectal dictionaries in the
> mid-1800s or so, also makes an appearance in the OED as v.1 1. with a
> remark:
>
> 1721 in BAILEY: [so in all edd. to 1800. Not in JOHNSON, nor in ASH.]
>
> In fact, it does appear in a couple of other dictionaries--Boyer (all
> eds. 1756-1814, French), Holloway (Sussex--possibly source for
> Halliwell-Phillipps), Grieb (1847, German), Katsenschmidt (1837,
> German), John Kersey (1708),  Elisha Coles (1717, under BLUFFE),
> Phillips (OED has 1706, but also other eds, 1720) Chambaud/des
> Carrires (1814, French)
>
> But, in all the French and German dictionaries, "bluff" simply
> redirects to "blindfold". And Bailey's German/English dictionary does
> NOT have BLUFF in this sense.
>
> The Phillips-Kersey-Coles-Bailey line is more interesting, but it is
> important to note that their OED predecessor (Ray) is titled "Words
> NOT used".
>
> Overall, BLUFF v.1 2. (poker) and 3. would have been more properly
> filed under BLUFF v.2. (== become bloated or distended), and perhaps
> the distance between v.2 and v.3 is not so great as to have earned
> separate articles.
>
> VS-)
>

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