sawbuck

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The Word of the Day for March 1 is:

sawbuck   \SAW-buck\   noun 
    *1 slang : a 10-dollar bill
     2 : sawhorse; especially : one with X-shaped ends

Example sentence:
     "Arena rock shows that once promised spectacle for less than a sawbuck 
have bloated into elite affairs resembling closed corporate events." (Jon Fine, 
_Business Week_, February 6, 2006)

Did you know?
     It has been suggested that the word "sawbuck" came to mean "a 10-dollar 
bill" because the X-shaped ends of a sawbuck look like the Roman numeral for 
10. This explanation is problematic because earliest known use of "sawbuck" in 
print, from 1850, refers to a 10-dollar bill, not a sawhorse. But we won't rule 
out the possibility that the "sawhorse" sense was used in speech before 1850 
and just didn't appear in print until later. If you are wondering about "buck," 
we can tell you that it first appeared in print as a word for "dollar" in 1856 
-- six years after the first recorded use of "sawbuck" for a 10-dollar bill.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.   





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