Word of the Day

: March 1, 2007

sawbuck

noun SAW-buck

What It Means

1 : a 10-dollar bill

2 : sawhorse; especially : one with X-shaped ends

sawbuck in Context

"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 example sentence.