1858.] BUCKBEAN AND BUCKWHEAT. 485 



Tortula ruralis, Hedw. On the sand-hills and banks of the 

 seacoast ; in fruit. 



BUCKBEAN AND BUCKWHEAT. 



Your correspondent "Etymologus" has thrown some light 

 upon the derivation of Buckbean and Buckwheat,, but it appears 

 to me that the prefix Buck has t7vo meanings. First, with re- 

 gard to jB^c^-bean, we may observe that bach, in German, is a 

 brook. Beck, in English, a brook or small stream, and buck, are 

 derived from the German bauche, or bach. Buck means a liquor 

 in which clothes are soaked for washing ; and we have also, de- 

 rived from the same root, ^McA:-basket, a basket in which clothes 

 are carried to the wash, or to be washed, or soaked for washing ; 

 bucking, the act or process of soaking ; bucking-stool, a washing- 

 block, or a stool on which tubs containing the soaked clothes 

 stand ; bucket, a vessel which holds water, or to draw water in, 

 etc. The word buck here prefixed has one and the same meaning, 

 and refers to water. The Buckbean may therefore have been 

 named from the place of its gt'owth, namely, boggy, wet ground, 

 or ground soaked with water, or bucked, as it is called in some 

 parts of England. 



Now, as to Buckwheat, for the meaning and derivation of 

 which we must look to other words having a similar prefix, 

 such as Buck-vasist, Buckram, Buckthorn, and words such as 

 buck, the male of the deer, rabbit, etc. ; Buckler, Buckk-r thorn, 

 Buckrams, the same as wild Garlick, etc. It will be seen that all 

 these words have a meaning indicating power or strength either 

 in material, property, or nature. There is a powerful nutritive 

 property in the Buckwheat, also in the Buckmast ; in the Buck- 

 thorn there is a powerful cathartic property, and the plant is 

 accordingly called Rhamnus catharticus, or Purging Buckthorn. 

 The male of the deer and rabbit is proverbially strong, and 

 sometimes used to express a strong, active fellow, and the word 

 buck is also applied to the stiff young gent who makes himself 

 conspicuous. The Buckrams, or wild Garlick, every one will 

 admit is strong enough in odour, as are all plants of this family, 

 and chemists tell us they contain a very powerful property called 

 sulphuret of alhjle. 



