A Buck Three-Eighty and Other Dismissive Dollar Figures

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, Marianne from Dallas.

Hey, Marianne, welcome to the show.

What can we do for you?

Oh, thank you.

I’m happy to be here.

I have a question because my father used to say something, and I’m one of eight kids and we all know it.

And he used to use a phrase called a buck 380.

What was happening when he used it?

He would say if he came home and you asked how much something would cost, he goes, a buck 380.

So he’d try and evade us.

And if he said something was worthless, he would also say, yeah, that’s $1.380.

Like, that’s got no value.

So it was either an evading technique or telling you something had no value.

I’ve just been trying to figure this out with my family, and we’re at a loss.

So any insights would be great.

It’s funny, isn’t it, how often the good communicators in our life have these great phrases that just stick, right?

They’re like a good cornbread and gravy.

They just like hang on.

Yeah, and to be very truthful, none of us do it.

We just remember my dad doing it, so it hasn’t dropped to us.

But it’s just a more, oh, that was a dadism.

It is a dadism, but it’s also Americanism.

It’s something that has been used throughout the United States since at least the 1930s, for sure.

I had no idea.

Absolutely, Marianne.

And we’ve heard from other listeners about this, too.

We’ve had questions from Andy in Lebanon, Indiana, Sally in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, Ray in Maquan, Wisconsin, and Jim in Maryville, Tennessee, as well, and probably others that I’m forgetting.

This kind of buck 380 falls in what we might call indefinite hyperbolic numerals.

These are terms used for approximate small dollar amounts.

And there are a lot of variations on this one.

$1.380, $1.180, $2.80, $1.380, $1.390, $1.298, $1.295.

And these are all exactly what you said.

You had it exactly right.

They’re all about kind of evading the real number.

Sometimes because you’re embarrassed that it was too high.

Sometimes because you’re embarrassed because it was so low.

Sometimes just to dismiss the thing as being important.

Which sounds like what your father sometimes did as well.

Like, it’s not your business to know.

It’s my business.

That’s exactly right.

Yeah, I was trying to do the math there and think, well, how many pennies would that be?

But $1.380?

Yeah, and I couldn’t make sense of it.

And, you know, it just didn’t make any sense to us.

We’re just like, $1.380.

Okay, Dad, sure.

Thanks for playing.

It’s not necessarily just that particular amount, whatever that amount is.

I mean, there’s also nickel 95, for example, or 117.

Yeah, these are all made up numbers.

None of these numbers are real.

They’re all completely invented.

Like whoever says it, they don’t mean it.

Yeah, he was having fun with you.

Oh, he did.

And he had a bunch of us to have fun with.

So that’s really fun to hear that there’s a lot of different ways to do it.

But, yeah, we always knew just stop asking.

You’re not getting anywhere.

Well, I’d imagine a man with eight kids gets tired of questions, so he probably had a lot of evasion techniques.

Yes, he did.

He did indeed.

Well, thank you so much.

That’s really fun to hear, and it just will be a delight for my family to hear about it, too.

So thank you.

Well, it’s a delight to have you share your memories.

We really appreciate it.

Thank you all.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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