Name: English Tutor Nick P Word Origins (54) Pass the Buck
Uploaded: 2019-07-10T15:03:15.000Z
Duration: 3 min 43 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 54. The word origins today is to pass

the buck. So we're covering an idiom word origin. Okay. Let's look at the note here.

The idiom to pass the buck means to shift. Shift means change the blame for

something to another person or past work or task on to others. So maybe you were

assigned it than you're giving your work to somebody else , especially a

subordinate. Maybe somebody who's below you. All right. Let's continue.

Basically to reassign the responsibility for tasks to another person. Let's

continue. The origin of the phrase goes all the way back to the second half of

the 19th century when poker became popular. Yes. It was probably like

during the cowboy days , especially out west. In order to reduce the capability

of players to cheat,  the deal past hands. It  means so if you're the person who's you

know shuffling the cards the next hand that goes to the next person going

around the table. Okay. So in order to reduce the capability of players to

cheat the deal passed hands around the table. So each player took turns at being

the dealer. Each hand this responsibility,  responsibility was passed to the next

player. The person whose turn it was to deal was often given a knife to mark it

was his turn. This knife usually had a handle made of buck horn. So here's where

the buck actually comes in. . It's not about a dollar bill. It's about you know the

animal. You know,  the buck. So the buck horn therefore they were passing the

buck. So that's where pass the buck this phrase actually came from. All right. Let's

continue. Some people believe the idea of blame was added because you know,  first

it was more like just responsibility.  Some people

believe the idea of blame was added after Harry and Truman,  remember the

president.  I think I  actually did a video of this quote. That he had you know, "the

buck stops here." Okay. He became famous for his quote the buck stops here. Meaning

that the responsibility and the blame will be taken for one's own actions. Because

you know,  even in politics a lot of times, they like to pass the blame onto

somebody else. So they are saying no the buck stops here. We did this. If it doesn't

work you can criticize us or blame us.  The buck stops here. So it sounds like

somebody who's more responsible. They're actually taking you know,  you know , taking

the credit in case well one it's good but also if it's if it fails. Okay.

He will usually pass the buck on to someone else.

All right. So ,  so let's continue here. Let's  look at these examples.  James will never

admit if he is to blame,  he will usually pass the buck on to

someone else. All right. So this is just the way that we use the phrase today or

number two. My manager will often give his dirty work you know,  these are the

unpleasant tasks or unpleasant jobs. He just passed the buck to me. So again,  this

is ... this is a case where you're passing work on to someone else. Okay.

Anyway,  I hope you got it. I hope it was  formative. Thank you for your time.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

English Tutor Nick P Word Origins (54) Pass the Buck

phrase

basically

admit

blame