#78760
08/22/2002 5:09 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
When I was about ten, a meddlesome adult told me that "blindman's bluff" should be
"blindman's buff.
The wordbook I am reading says "bluff" in seventeenth century mant "blindfod", and
that blinkers on horses were called "bluffs"
On the Internet, the two spellings are used to mean the same thing.
Have any of you got a theory to explain how "blindman's buff came into use?
Outside of just ignorance?
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#78761
08/22/2002 5:30 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Fragonard did a painting sometime between 1775 and 1780, the English title of which is Blindman's Buff. Then there's this piece:
James Gillray (British, 1757–1815)
Blindmans Buff – or – Too Many for John Bull
Hand-colored etching, published by Hannah Humphrey, June 12, 1795
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#78762
08/23/2002 5:06 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
I'd never heard of the buff variant. It makes me think of nekkiditity.
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#78763
08/23/2002 5:38 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear Soarteye: You've got it! Blindman's buff is the game played on a nudist colony!!
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#78764
08/23/2002 5:43 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
It makes me think of nekkiditity.
What's with the extra syllable there, Sparteye?
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#78765
08/23/2002 5:51 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Extra syllable is from fantasy of being groped in the game.
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#78766
08/23/2002 7:37 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
I don't think Sparteye used an extra syllable.
Naked = nekkid (or however she spelled it)
noun form = nekkidity
Stupid --> noun form --> stupidity
I'd say she was on linguistically solid ground.
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#78767
08/23/2002 7:41 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Look again, Dub. Nekkiditity.
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#78768
08/23/2002 7:53 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Omigosh! Sparteye, that was a rather risqué spelling, wasn't it?
Thanks, Faldage, the ever-observant along with the ever-observant Miss Anna.
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#78769
08/24/2002 10:26 AM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
Myself, I've never heard the bluff variety before.
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#78770
08/24/2002 12:09 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,077 Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,077 Likes: 2 |
Grew-up-in-and-around-New-York-City-area:
I've heard it both ways - "blind man's buff" and "blind man's bluff." I always assumed one was originally the "right" way, the other an innocent mispronunciation on the part of some child many years ago, maybe several hundred. The meaning wasn't altered any; ultimately the change diffused out and was incorporated into the the common parlance as totally equivalent. By now the two are interchangeable.
(Note the scrupulous avoidance of suggesting which one is "correct" ! )
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#78771
08/27/2002 3:44 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
I've never heard the bluff variety before
Likewise - which goes a teeny little way to suggesting this could be a US variant.
I think I'd assumed the "buff" to be the bumping up against people the "blindman" does - as in buffeting .
M-W's etymology of buffet is interesting:
Etymology: Middle English, from Old French, diminutive of buffe blow
Date: 13th century
1 : a blow especially with the hand
2 : something that strikes with telling force
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#78772
08/27/2002 8:57 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
OED2 supports the buffet interpretation, giving bluff as an *early spelling variant:
bllind-man's-buff Also 6-7 blindman-buff(e, (-buffet, -bough, -bluff,) 7-9 blindman's-buff. [f.
BLIND-MAN + BUFF = buffet, blow, stroke.]
1. A game in which one player is blindfolded, and tries to catch and identify any one of the others, who, on their part, push him about, and make sport with him.
1600 ROWLANDS Let. Humours Blood iv. 64 At hot-cockles, leape-frogge, or blindman-buffe. 1628 GAULE Pract. The. (1629) 231 Others make him [Christ] no better then their Pastime, at no more discreet a Sport then Childs, or Fooles Blind-man-Buffet: Prophecie vnto us, who is he that smote thee? 1634 J. TAYLOR (Water-P.) Gt. Eater Kent, Gregorie Dawson, an English-man, devised the unmatchable mystery of Blind-man-buffe. 1696 Month. Mercury VII. 55 They oblig'd him to play with 'em at Blindman-Buff. 1766 GOLDSM. Vic. W. xi, Mr. Burchell..set the boys and girls to blindman's buff. 1866 R. CHAMBERS Ess. Ser. I. 186 The whole parlour put into disorder by blind man's buff.
2. fig.
1590 Three Lords Lond., Ile to my stall; Love, Lucre, Conscience, blindman buffe to you all. 1643 BRAMHALL Serpent Salve §1 We desire to see what they have done, before we go to blindman's buffet one with another. 1648 C. WALKER Hist. Indep. I. 55 Me thinks..we are compelled to play at blind-man-bough for our lives. 1837 CARLYLE Fr. Rev. I. VI. iii. 278 Government by Blind-man's-buff.
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#78773
08/27/2002 9:25 PM
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Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 742
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 742 |
I had never heard blindman's "buff" until this thread, and I ain't bluffing.
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