Etymology -- pass the buck

Some claim that it derives from an American custom of indicating who the card dealer is by stabbing a buckhorn knife into the table in front of him. What cliché is it?

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Answer: pass the buck

Purportedly, the marker was called a buck (from buckhorn knife ) and it marked the current dealer. When the buck is passed to the next player, the next player deals.

However, this is a disputed etymology. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, "The buck is any inanimate object, usually knife or pencil, which is thrown into a jack pot and temporarily taken by the winner of the pot. Whenever the deal reaches the holder of the buck, a new jack pot must be made." (Source: Draw Poker by J.W. Keller (1877))

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Presumably this (either of these) is also the source of the Truman's trademark phrase, "The buck stops here."

The first recorded instance of "buck" in the sense of "responsibility" is from 1912. Thus, when Truman says "The buck stops here" he's saying that "the responsibility stops here."

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Yahoo, I got one!! thank you

Excellent. Note that I try to make these mailing list questions more difficult because I assume people will use the Internet to find the answer. The board-game questions are a bit easier.

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