How did the word “buck” become slang for a dollar?
1. It referred to the image of a stag that appeared on early territorial banknotes.
2. It was a reference to a deer hide, commonly used as a unit of trade.
3. It came from the American colonists’ nickname for the British pound.
4. It originated from Civil War soldiers’ slang for military pay vouchers.
Answer:
2. It was a reference to a deer hide, commonly used as a unit of trade.
In frontier America, deerskins (often called “bucks” or “buckskins”) were widely used as a medium of exchange before standardized currency. A single skin became associated with a unit of value for trade, and the term “buck” eventually came to mean the equivalent of one dollar.
