“Pass the buck” grew out of American poker, where a buck was a marker showing who was expected to deal. When the marker reached a player who didn’t want the job, it could be passed to the next person. The expression is securely associated with American poker by the late 19th century, though the surviving evidence does not establish a single first use or an exact moment when the table talk became a familiar phrase.
The marker itself is sometimes described as a knife with a buckhorn handle, which is said to explain the name. That’s a popular origin story, but the evidence doesn’t prove that one particular kind of knife gave the buck its name. A marker could take different forms, and early accounts don’t settle the question. What matters for the phrase is the simple image: a player hands on the marker—and, with it, the turn or obligation.
From the poker table, “pass the buck” broadened into a way to describe shifting responsibility, especially when someone is avoiding blame. The handoff no longer needs to involve a dealer; it might be a manager passing a difficult decision to a colleague or a public official blaming another office. Harry Truman helped make the reverse formulation famous with the sign on his desk: “The Buck Stops Here.” His message was that responsibility should end with the person in charge, not be handed along.
Today, the phrase can describe anything from routine delegation to conspicuous finger-pointing: “When the budget came in over estimate, the department heads tried to pass the buck.” Or, in a less accusatory setting, “I can handle the customer complaint—no need to pass the buck to another team.” Its poker background gives the phrase a vivid sense of a burden moving from one person to another. That easy-to-picture handoff is why it still suits moments when no one wants to be left holding responsibility.