[Ads-l] 1849 use of "buck" in a "brag" (~=poker) game

Andy Bach afbach at GMAIL.COM
Wed May 9 14:58:54 UTC 2018


> "....The game had progressed for some time, when the 'pot' having been
doubled and a ten dollar 'buck' had started, the brag had passed to the
Colonel...."

I wonder if "buck" here means "raise" and then "brag" means the pass/check
or raise opportunity then goes on to the next player

On Wed, May 9, 2018 at 9:14 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:

> The word "buck" has many meanings (including "buck" meaning "dollar,"
> based on a buckskin trading equivalent in the western U.S. in the early
> 1800s), here's a possible antedating of "buck" somewhat but maybe not quite
> as used in the game of poker, here called by the forerunner of poker called
> "brag."
>
>
> "....The game had progressed for some time, when the 'pot' having been
> doubled and a ten dollar 'buck' had started, the brag had passed to the
> Colonel...."
>
> Southern Sentinel, Plaquemine, Louisiana, Nov. 29, 1849 p. 1 col. 5.
>
>
> For the full context, see:
>
> https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88064476/1849-
> 11-21/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1789&sort=date&date2=1963&
> searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&index=2&words=brag+
> buck&proxdistance=5&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=brag+buck&
> phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 

a

Andy Bach,
afbach at gmail.com
608 658-1890 cell
608 261-5738 wk

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list