PASS THE BUCK

The phrase means to shift or reassign the blame or responsibility (for something) to another person, group.

Example: Instead of passing the buck, think what you can do to improve your performance.

The origin of the phrase can be traced to the card game Poker which became very popular in America during the second half of the 19th century.

A lot of shady deals often made the players suspicious of each other, especially of the person who dealt or distributed the cards. In order to ensure fairness the deal changed hands during sessions. The person who was next in line to deal would be given a marker.

This was often a knife, and the knives often had handles made of buck’s horn - hence the marker came to be known as a buck. When the dealer’s turn was done he ‘passed the buck’.

Silver coins were later used as markers and probably this is how the use of buck as a slang term for American dollar originated.

The Weekly New Mexican used the phrase literally for the first time in 1865.

“They draw at the commissary, and at poker after they have passed the ‘buck’.”

Etymologists say that this is clearly around the time that the phrase was coined, as there are several such printed citations in the following years.

The figurative version of the phrase, that is, a usage where no actual buck was present, began around the start of the 20th century. The best-known use of the figurative bit can be found in US President Harry S. Truman’s desktop sign which said “the buck stops here.”