BUCK

buck, (1) (from the o. eng. _buc_, a he-goat, and _bucca_, a male deer), the male of several animals, of goats, hares and rabbits, and particularly of the fallow-deer. during the 18th century the word was used of a spirited, reckless young man of fashion, and later, with particular reference to extravagance in dress, of a dandy. (2) (from a root common to teutonic and romance languages, cf. the ger. _bauch_, fr. _buee_, and ital. _bucata_), the bleaching of clothes in lye, also the lye itself, and the clothes to be bleached, so a "buck-basket" means a basket of clothes ready for the wash. (3) either from an obsolete word meaning "body," or from the sense of bouncing or jumping, derived from (1), a word now only found in compound words, as "buck-board," a light four-wheeled vehicle, the primitive form of which has one or more seats on a springy board, joining the front and rear axles and serving both as springs and body; a "buck-wagon" (dutch, _bok-wagen_) is a south african cart with a frame projecting over the wheels, used for the transport of heavy loads. (4) (either from "buck" a he-goat, or from a common teutonic root, to bend, as seen in the ger. _bucken_, and eng. "bow"), a verb meaning "to leap"; seen especially in the compound "buck-jumper," a horse which leaps clear off the ground, with feet tucked together and arched back, descending with fore-feet rigid and head down and drawn inwards.