buck?

[Ben Zimmer]

On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 12:12 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> At 7:39 PM -0400 10/25/10, Laurence Horn wrote:
> >At 2:57 PM -0400 10/25/10, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
> >>It is covered in HDAS, s.v. _buck_ n. sense 2.e.
> >
> >And here in an earlier thread (with many examples from athletes
> >weighing or batting a buck seventy-five).

The lone HDAS cite for the '100 lb.' sense is from The New York Times,
3/3/93, quoting John Starks (of the New York Knicks) on Kenny Anderson
(of the New Jersey Nets): "Kenny weighs about a buck-60." (Anderson
suffered a season-ending injury from a Starks foul.)

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/03/03/sports/pro-basketball-starks-is-fined-but-isn-t-banned.html

Some antedatings:

1985 _Baton Rouge State Times_ 14 Mar. 3-F (Factiva) Murphy was
convinced his alleged homophobia had been instrumental in the
establishment of San Francisco's Kill Eddie Murphy Foundation and that
he can handle any complaints should Michael Jackson want to be
starting something. "He only weighs a buck and five pounds. I don't
care."

1989 _Sacramento Bee_ 21 Nov. D5 (NewsBank) When other teams see him,
they say, "I hope he plays me; I'll go for 30," Anders said. He
doesn't look like he weighs a buck-oh-five, but he's a point guard in
his heart.

1989 _Worcester Telegram & Gazette_ 25 Nov. 15 (Factiva) "The only
reason I didn't get the ball up," countered Miller, "was that he
(Kleine) weighs 290 and I weigh a buck-eighty-five. I felt like I got
hit by Lawrence Taylor."

1990 _Orlando Sentinel_ 24 Apr. D1 (NewsBank) McKyer quickly made it
clear he doesn't consider tackling runners part of his responsibility.
"I weigh a buck seventy-five (175 pounds)," he said. "If you depend on
your cornerbacks to make tackles, that's part of your problem."

(There's also the song "Vibes and Stuff" by A Tribe Called Quest on
their classic 1991 album "The Low End Theory," wherein Phife Dawg
gives the self-description, "Weigh a buck-fifty, 36 waist.")

> As Al Michaels, announcer on Monday Night (now Tuesday Morning)
> Football just reminded me by saying "A buck 18 left", bucks in
> sporting contests can also be minutes as well as .100 of batting
> average or 100 of pounds.  I think it helps to have the second
> figure--"a buck 18" works better to convey 'one minute 18 seconds'
> than just "a buck" would do to convey 'one minute'.

Same goes for weight: the cites above seem to bottom out at "a buck oh five."

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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