Eggcorn Forum

In English, or at least in AmEng,* the phrase “bucking for” is relatively common. It means to strive insistently, even inordinately, for something perceived as valuable. We may find ourselves bucking for a raise, bucking for a promotion, or bucking for better conditions. We can even buck up and buck for a buck.

No one seems to know when the idiom “bucking for” first appeared in English or where it came from. Time magazine began using the phrase in the 1950s. I have seen speculation that “bucking for” may have started out as military jingo. My guess is that the expression has been adapted from one of these two uses of the verb “buck:”

(1) “Buck” can mean to oppose, as in the phrase “buck the trend.” This usage appeared in the mid 1800s, perhaps as an alteration of “butt” (what male goats do, not, you know, the other thing). So a person bucking for something would be taking “bucking against” a step farther: he/she would be fighting against opposing forces to achieve something positive.

(2) In the heyday of the British empire, soldiers in India adopted a Hindi word (“bak/bukh”) that referred to swaggering, insolent speech and spelled it “buck.” “Bucking for” a promotion might have begun its life by referring to using inflated language to achieve a higher rank.

Anyway, whatever its origin, “buck for” has a corruption that has may be an eggcorn. The idiom “buck for” can easily be turned into “bug for.” Both phrases refer to inordinate striving and could be easily confused.

In theory it should be simple to detect the substitution. “To bug,” in the sense of pressing an irritating and persistent query, is a transitive verb that takes a person as the object: we bug X for something. “To buck for,” in contrast, is an intransitive verb followed by a “for” preposition and the object of the preposition is not usually a person. But English does not always respect the categories of grammarians-“to bug” can occur in popular speech in an intransitive form. Saying “the ten year old bugged for a cell phone” feels odd, but you will find similar expressions on the net. To make matters even worse, “bug” is often follow by a “for” preposition when it is used intransitively.

All this grammatical strangeness means that it is impossible to know, without direct access to the mental processes of a speaker/writer, when “bug for” replaces “buck for.” We can always argue that the speaker was not confusing “bug” and “buck.” That said, I still suspect that the some examples of “bugging for” may be eggcorns. The six examples below seem like good candidates. Note that in the first two the objects of “for” are a raise and a promotion. “Buck for a raise” and “buck for a promotion” are almost canned expressions.

Web sci-fiction: “Chiellon turned at the opening of a nearby hatch, noting a crewman coming out of it. “Chief? Thank the gods, man. How did you end up here?” Chiellon flared a short smile at the sight of weapons. ” Bugging for a promotion ?” He noted.” (http://www.michielr.nl/ussarcher/index. … ost&id=126)

Knife forum post: “Around here, teachers are always bugging for a raise ! I guess that’s not the case in your neck of the woods!” (http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showt … p?t=221215)

Basketball forum post: “if a player is bugging for a trade, why not use his stock to improve your team ” (http://slamonline.com/online/nba/2008/1 … ok-he-did/)

Heavy metal forum: “There is a haunted-house decorated in beautiful Victorian furniture not far from where all live and we are looking into making a video clip, and possibly an offline flash based multimedia extra, but that`s all just talk at the moment, and nothing is finalized but I`m definitely bugging for a decent quality clip.” (http://www.hailmetal.com/gate.html?name … ow&rid=220)

Food blog entry: “I was bugging for a yummy sandwich.” (http://foodstalkers.wordpress.com/2009/ … me-remedy/)

Blog entry: “I am already packed till next weekend, it’s that bad. So if ya bugging for a drink/outing/dinner/chillout sorry can’t… ” (http://www.shaunchng.com/blogs/2006/11/ … -learning/)

Forum post: “[X] has been bugging for a boat again ever since my dad sand-barred and sunk the last one.” (http://www3.fertilethoughts.com/forums/ … p?t=337726)

* The phrase occurs 20+ times in COCA. The only reference in the BNC looks like it may have been taken from a U. S. publication.