Carol's questions for New Steve Was: Tempest in a teapot/cup/kettle

[Carol]

Potioncat wrote: 
> But I wonder why the US uses the term buck at all? At the time we
were building the country and naming animals, we were still English.

Cabal replied:
> English? Spanish. French. Virtually everyone that could get on a
boat and come here. Plus, don't forget, the natives who had already
built here. <sip> 
> 
> But, that aside, English is an adoptive language, very little of it
is "ours." First, it was actually German first, since what is now
England was originally settled by Germanic tribes, which were then
combined with the conquering / settling Anglos and Saxons but didn't
emerge as English as we know it until after the French occupation. So
the English language was and is many languages all put together. 
> 
> But, the British where neither the first or the only settlers in the
> Americas. 

Carol responds:

Er, English was originally a Germanic language spoken by the Angles
(not Anglos), Saxons, and Jutes who settled parts of what is now
England (such as East Anglia, Sussex, and Kent). They did not speak
German, which is a modern language, but Old Saxon, which quickly
developed into Anglo-Saxon, the ancestor of modern English, splitting
off from the Saxon language spoken on the continent, now called Low
German. (Dutch is descended from Low German and German is descended
from High German, with "high" and "low" relating to altitude, not
social status.) Nor were the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes the original
settlers of England, which was inhabited at the time by Romanized
Celts. Other Celtic tribes and Picts, who may or may not have been
Celtic, inhabited other parts of Britain. The north was invaded and
later settled by Vikings. Earlier still, Britain had been occupied by
nameless Neolithic tribes, which blended with the Celts.

As for American English, it was shaped at first primarily by the
British. French, Native American, and Spanish words entered it at
various times, but it was and remains English, a world language that
all of us are using. (Its variants are the topic of many of our
posts.) The settlers of the original thirteen colonies spoke English
and thought of themselves as British until the Revolutionary War.

As for "buck," the term used in the U.S, for male deer (I've never
heard an American deer referred to as a stag), it's quite old--and
it's derived from Anglo-Saxon (Old English).

>From Merriam-Webster Online:

Main Entry:
    buck 
<snip>
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English bucca stag, he-goat; akin
to Old High German boc he-goat, Middle Irish bocc

Date: before 12th century 

1 <snip> buck : a male animal; especially : a male deer or antelope  
2a: a male human being: man b: a dashing fellow : dandy 3 <snip>:
antelope 4a: buckskin; also: an article (as a shoe) made of buckskin 
b(1): dollar (2): a sum of money especially to be gained <make a quick
buck>; also : money—usually used in plural 5  [short for sawbuck
sawhorse]  a: a supporting rack or frame b: a short thick
leather-covered block for gymnastic vaulting

"Stag" dates from the same period:

Main entry:
    stag 
<snip>
Etymology:
    Middle English stagge, from Old English stagga; akin to Old Norse
andarsteggi drake

Date: 12th century

1 <snip>: an adult male red deer; also: the male of various other deer
(especially genus Cervus) 2 chiefly Scottish: a young horse;
especially: a young unbroken stallion 3: a male animal castrated after
sexual maturity — compare steer 4: a young adult male domestic chicken
or turkey 5a: a social gathering of men only b: one who attends a
dance or party without a companion

So it looks as if "stag" relates mainly to red deer and other
(smaller?) male deer are bucks. "Buck" is related to the word for a
male goat and "stag," interestingly, to the word for "drake" (in the
sense of a male duck, not a dragon).

But both words date to the twelfth century, long before the settling
of America.

Carol, who agrees with Potioncat that the connotations of "buck" are
different--and less regal or majestic--than those of "stag," at least
as they relate to a male deer