[Ads-l] Does "The buck stops here'' stop here?

[Laurence Horn]

Nice work, all!  Is there any confirmation (or disconfirmation) from any of these sources that the origin of the reference to a buck in both “the buck stops here” and “passing the buck” is to a buck-handled knife (evidently distinct from the Buck knives named for the early 20th c. blacksmith/knife-maker Hoyt Buck) that traditionally rotated around the poker table to indicate whose turn it was to deal? Or is that an etymythology? The rotating buck-knife is the story I’ve always heard, but there’s no mention of, or even speculation about, this story in the citations.

FWIW, Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_passing) uses the noncommittal evidential expression “is said to have” to describe the origin story:
============
The expression is said to have originated from poker <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poker> in which a marker or counter (such as a knife with a buckhorn handle during the American Frontier <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Frontier> era) was used to indicate the person whose turn it was to deal <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poker_dealer>. If the player did not wish to deal, the responsibility could be passed by the passing of the "buck <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button_(poker)>," as the counter came to be called, to the next player
============

LH

> On Jun 8, 2024, at 7:47 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> The cerebral hard drive must be slipping.
> 
> JL
> 
> On Sat, Jun 8, 2024 at 6:07 AM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> Thanks JL and Fred. Congratulations to Barry Popik on his excellent
>> discovery.
>> 
>> Barry clipped the citation on September 16, 2019.
>> 
>> https://www.newspapers.com/article/lincoln-journal-star-the-buck-stops-her/36017495/
>> 
>> As mentioned by Fred, the citation appears in "The New Yale Book of
>> Quotations" (2021).
>> 
>> In addition, JL mentioned the citation previously on January 16, 2023.
>> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2023-January/163089.html
>> 
>> The Quote Investigator article has been updated, at last. Changes
>> should be visible within  24 hours. Barry Popik, Jonathan Lighter, and
>> Fred Shapiro are acknowledged.
>> https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/02/07/buck-stops/
>> 
>> Garson
>> 
>> On Fri, Jun 7, 2024 at 1:56 PM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> The 1929 citation is included in the New Yale Book of Quotations, which
>> credits Barry Popik for discovering it.
>>> 
>>> Fred Shapiro
>>> 
>>> 
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
>> Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Sent: Friday, June 7, 2024 1:43 PM
>>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Subject: Does "The buck stops here'' stop here?
>>> 
>>> Twenty years ago on another thread I wrote:
>>> 
>>> "I'm sticking to my story that I saw a reference to 'The Buck Stops Here'
>>> on a little desk plaque in a story published during the '30s in _Our
>> Army_
>>> magazine."
>>> 
>>> While not quite vindication, the following makes my statement nugatory:
>>> 
>>> 1929  _Lincoln [Neb.] Evening Journal_  (Oct. 2)  13 (Newspapers.com):
>> It's
>>> about the second lieutenant in the war department whose desk was back in
>>> the corner among the boxes and the barrels....Above this desk the second
>>> looey had placed a card which read: "The buck stops here"...and he didn't
>>> mean buck private.
>>> 
>>> JL
>>> --
>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> truth."
>>> 
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society -
>> http://www.americandialect.org/
>> <http://www.americandialect.org/>
>>> 
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org/
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org/
>> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org/


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