buck

buck · noun, verb¹

1. Proto-Indo-European*bʰuǵ-
2. Proto-Germanic*bukkaz
3. Proto-Germanic*bukkô
4. Proto-West Germanic*bukkō
5. Old Englishbucca
6. Middle Englishbukke
7. English todaybuck

Inherited from Middle English bukke. Doublet of puck (“billy goat”). Currency-related senses hail from American English, a clipping of buckskin as a unit of trade among Native Americans and Europeans in frontier days (attested from 1748). The idea of rigidly standing implements is instilled by Dutch bok (“sawhorse”) as in zaagbok (“sawbuck”). The sense of an object indicating someone’s turn then occurred in American English, possibly originating from the game poker, where a knife (typically with a hilt made from a stag horn) was used as a place-marker to signify whose turn it was to deal. The place-marker was commonly referred to as a buck, which reinforced the term “pass the buck” used in poker, and eventually a silver dollar was used in place of a knife, which also led to a dollar being referred to as a buck.

buck · verb²

1. Jamaican Creole · semantic loan frombuck
2. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*bʰugʰ-
3. Proto-Germanic · derived from*bukkōną“to bend”
4. Proto-West Germanic · derived from*bukkōn“to bend, bend repeatedly”
5. Middle Dutch · borrowed frombucken
6. Middle Low German · borrowed frombucken“to bend”
7. English todaybuck

From dialectal buck ("to give in, yield"; also bug (“to bend”)), from Middle Low German bucken (“to bend”) or Middle Dutch bucken, bocken (“to bend”), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *bukkōn (“to bend, bend repeatedly”), from Proto-Germanic *bukkōną (“to bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰugʰ-, *bʰewgʰ- (“to bend”) + Proto-Germanic *-(u)kōną. Cognate with Old Frisian bukkia (“to bend”). Influenced in some senses by buck “male goat” (see above). Sense “to meet, to encounter” is a semantic loan from Jamaican Creole buck. Compare bow and elbow.

buck · noun³

See beech.

buck · noun, verb⁴

1. Middle English · derived frombouken“steep in lye”
2. English todaybuck

From Middle English bouken (“steep in lye”), ultimately related to the root of beech. Cognate with Middle High German büchen, Swedish byka, Danish byge and Low German būken.

buck · noun, verb⁵

1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*būkaz
2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*būk
3. Old English · inherited frombūc“belly, bottle, jug, pitcher”
4. Middle English · inherited frombouk“belly, trunk, body, hull of a ship, fishtrap, container”
5. English todaybuck

From Middle English bouk (“belly, trunk, body, hull of a ship, fishtrap, container”), from Old English būc (“belly, bottle, jug, pitcher”), from Proto-West Germanic *būk, from Proto-Germanic *būkaz. Doublet of bucket.

buck · verb⁶

1. Hindi · borrowed fromबकना“babble, talk nonsense”
2. English todaybuck

From Hindi बकना (baknā, “babble, talk nonsense”).

Buck · proper noun⁷

1. Proto-Germanic · derived from*būkaz
2. Proto-West Germanic · derived from*būk
3. Old Saxon · derived frombūk
4. Middle Low German · derived frombûk“belly”
5. Middle English · inherited frombuk
6. English todayBuck

* For both the English surname and given name, originally a nickname for someone who resembled a buck. * Also as an English topographic surname, from Middle English buk (modern beech). * As a German and Dutch surname, shortened from Burkhard, compare Burkhart. * As a north German and Danish surname, from Middle Low German bûk (“belly”), from Old Saxon būk, from Proto-West Germanic *būk, from Proto-Germanic *būkaz. Compare Bauch. * Also as a German and Dutch surname, variant of Bock. * Also as a German surname, variant of Puck. * As a Germanized Lower Sorbian surname, from buk (“beech”).

Words from the same roots