<P> Buck passing, or passing the buck, is the act of attributing to another person or group, one's own responsibility . It is often used to refer to a strategy in power politics whereby a state tries to get another state to deter or possibly fight an aggressor state while it remains on the sidelines . </P> <P> The expression is said to have originated from poker, in which a marker or counter (such as a knife with a buckhorn handle during the American Frontier era) was used to indicate the person whose turn it was to deal . If the player did not wish to deal he could pass the responsibility by passing the "buck", as the counter came to be called, to the next player . </P> <P> Another less common but arguably less fanciful attribution is to the French expression bouc émissaire, meaning "scapegoat", whereby passing the bouc is equivalent to passing the blame or onus . The terms bouc émissaire and scapegoat both originate from an Old Testament (Lev. 16: 6--10) reference to an animal that was ritually made to carry the burden of sins, after which the "buck" was sent or "passed" into the wilderness to expiate them . </P>

Where did the phrase pass the buck come from
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