Short takes: Blind-man's bluff

Thu Mar 18 03:19:08 UTC 2010

I grew up with "bluff," switched to the literary "buff" after becoming
persuaded that it wasn't some kind of error, and haven't looked back. Like,
how often does "blind man's buff" / "bind man's bluff" occur in ordinary
conversation to any degree worth losing sleep over? Or at all, for that
matter?

-Wilson

On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 10:42 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Short takes: Blind-man's bluff
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > 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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-- 
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to come
from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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