# Origin of "Bang for your Buck" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 15, 2004, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-bang-for-your-buck/274879 "2004-11-15T16:59:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-bang-for-your-buck/274879/1 "2004-11-15T16:59:55Z")
Basic question, does anyone know what the origin of “Best bang for your buck” is? I am somewhat leery of googling that at work, but it came up at coffee this morning and I turn to my fellow Dopers for help. ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-bang-for-your-buck/274879/2 "2004-11-15T17:22:50Z")
Not entirely sure, but I was immediately reminded of the old Springmaid sheet ad with an Indian sprawled out on a hammock and a young Indian maiden with the caption “[A buck well spent on a Springmaid Sheet](http://www.snopes.com/business/market/springmaid.asp).” Probably unrelated, but perhaps not. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-bang-for-your-buck/274879/3 "2004-11-15T17:42:39Z")
Until **samclem** gets here, a tentative origin: [http://ezra.cornell.edu/posting.php?timestamp=964497600](http://ezra.cornell.edu/posting.php?timestamp=964497600) > [@](#): > > Here’s what the AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY OF IDIOMS (p. 425) has to say: “The…term originated in the late 1960s in the military for expenditures for firepower and soon was extended to mean an increased financial return or better value.” So no, it’s not sexist, though it’s not without a certain vulgarity in it’s application of “more is better” to military destruction. You’re right that the slang term “buck” comes from the use of buckskin as a unit of exchange with Native American people. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-bang-for-your-buck/274879/4 "2004-11-16T01:21:06Z")
> **[Penguin Random House](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com?date=19971219)** > > Committed to publishing great books, connecting readers and authors globally, and spreading the love of reading. …depending on whether Mr. Safire is correct about the 1954 origin. It is almost certainly from the military, as Exapno found. By the way, I found this by going to one of my favorite resources on word/phrase origins: [WebFusion AUE Concordance Interface Prefix](http://alt-usage-english.org/concordance_interface.shtml) This is always a good place to start as it indexes some good people–Maven’s Word of the Day, Michael Quinion’s _World Wide Words_, Dave Wilton’s _wordorigins_ and Evan Morris’ Word Detective. These are the trustworthy one’s on that site. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-bang-for-your-buck/274879/5 "2004-11-16T01:38:56Z")
And, indeed, I just found a newspaper cite(January, 1954) using the phrase “more bang for a buck”’ in describing the policy as Safire suggested. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-bang-for-your-buck/274879/6 "2004-11-16T03:08:17Z")
I did so too search Maven’s Word of the Day! But most of the word sites have terrible search engines. So I’ve bookmarked your site, **sam**. ---
**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-bang-for-your-buck/274879/7 "2004-11-16T13:26:37Z")
Thanks! I have also bookmarked that site. The sweet smell of facts shattering my co-workers, I love it!