Etymology tree
Ancient Greek [Term?]?
Ancient Greek βούβαλος (boúbalos)bor.
Latin būbalusder.
Late Latin bufalusder.
Italian bufaloder.
Old French bufle
Middle French buffleder.
English buffe
English buff
From buffe (“leather”), from Middle French buffle (“buffalo”).
Meanings
Of the color of buff leather, a brownish yellow.
(colloquial) Unusually muscular.
The bouncer was a big, buff dude with tattoos, a shaved head, and a serious scowl.
That's right: I'm taking driver's ed next semester. Hiring an interpreter for CHS and the deaf school outta my own hefty pockets. You're welcome. Oh, and I'm going to get really skinny and buff. All slim like a swimsuit model. 2011, Josh Berk, The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin, Random House Digital, Inc., →ISBN, page 244:
fr balèze (unusually muscular) · es fisicudo (unusually muscular) · de muskulös (unusually muscular) · fr attirant (physically attractive) · de durchtrainiert (unusually muscular) · pt bombado (unusually muscular) · es papiado (unusually muscular) · pt atraente (physically attractive) · ja ムキムキ (unusually muscular) · de attraktiv (physically attractive) · fi lihaksikas (unusually muscular) · mi mangaeka (of the color of buff leather, a brownish yellow) · fi ruskeankeltainen (of the color of buff leather, a brownish yellow) · eo alloga (physically attractive) · es fornido (unusually muscular) · es atrayente (physically attractive) · de gut aussehend (physically attractive) · it attraente (physically attractive) · sv biffig (unusually muscular) · es papeado (unusually muscular) · fr baraqué (unusually muscular) · bg нацепен (unusually muscular) · fr chamois (of the color of buff leather, a brownish yellow)
Etymology tree
Ancient Greek [Term?]?
Ancient Greek βούβαλος (boúbalos)bor.
Latin būbalusder.
Late Latin bufalusder.
Italian bufaloder.
Old French bufle
Middle French buffleder.
English buffe
English buff
From buffe (“leather”), from Middle French buffle (“buffalo”).
Meanings
(countable, uncountable) Undyed leather from the skin of buffalo or similar animals.
[…]; but is in a ſuite of buffe […] c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 94:
(countable, uncountable) A tool, often one covered with buff leather, used for polishing.
(countable, uncountable) A brownish yellow colour.
1693, John Dryden (translator), The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis Translated into English Verse, London: Jacob Tonson, Satire 10, lines 307-308, p. 203,
[…] a Visage rough,
Deform’d, Unfeatur’d, and a Skin of Buff.
His face changed from tan to buff. 1929, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 24, in Red Harvest:
(countable, uncountable) A military coat made of buff leather.
A diuell in an euerlaſting garment hath him ; / On whoſe hard heart is button’d vp with ſteele : / A Feind, a Fairie, pittileſſe and ruffe : / A Wolfe, nay worſe, a fellow all in buffe […] c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 94:
(countable, informal, uncountable) A person who is very interested in a particular subject.
He’s a real history buff. He knows everything there is to know about the civil war.
(countable, uncountable) A change introduced in a patch that makes a character, item, or attack stronger.
(countable, qualifier:roleplaying games, uncountable) An effect that makes a character or item stronger.
I just picked up an epic damage buff! Let's go gank the other team!
(countable, uncountable) Compressive coupler force that occurs during a slack bunched condition.
(colloquial, countable, uncountable) The bare skin.
To be in buff, is equivalent to being naked. 1880, Thomas Wright, “buff”, in Dictionary of obsolete and provincial English, containing words from the English writers previous to the nineteenth century which are no longer in use, or are not used in the same sense. And words which are now used only in the provincial dialects, volume 1, London: George Bell and Sons, page 265:
Not to mention, nudity can be just plain convenient. “Laundry is minimal,” Schulte notes. It also doesn’t hurt that being in the buff spices up his workday. 2021 October 18, Ian Lecklitzner, “The Inevitable Rise of the Work-From-Home Nudist”, in MEL Magazine:
to strip to the buff
(countable, uncountable) The greyish viscid substance constituting the buffy coat.
(countable, uncountable) Any substance used to dilute (street) drugs in order to increase profits.
2014, “Aldergrove’s 856 gang busted, $400,000 in drugs seized,” CBC News, 30 July, 2014,
Police say this 20 ton hydraulic jack was used to press mixtures of cocaine and “buff” into brick.
nl liefhebber (a person who is very interested in a particular subject) · sv kyllerfärg (a brownish yellow colour) · es aficionado (a person who is very interested in a particular subject) · es beneficio (in video games) · fi ruskeankeltainen (a brownish yellow colour) · es bruñido (in video games) · es bruñidura (in video games) · ga díograiseoir (a person who is very interested in a particular subject) · es mejora (in video games) · de Fan (a person who is very interested in a particular subject) · ota دوه توكی (a brownish yellow colour) · fr passionné (a person who is very interested in a particular subject) · id bungalan (a brownish yellow colour) · fr chamois (a brownish yellow colour) · fr aficionado (a person who is very interested in a particular subject) · sv fantast (a person who is very interested in a particular subject) · es bruñimiento (in video games) · hu sárgásbarna (a brownish yellow colour) · sv entusiast (a person who is very interested in a particular subject) · de Enthusiast (a person who is very interested in a particular subject) · fr mordu (a person who is very interested in a particular subject) · es color del ante (a brownish yellow colour) · fi friikki (a person who is very interested in a particular subject)
Etymology tree
Ancient Greek [Term?]?
Ancient Greek βούβαλος (boúbalos)bor.
Latin būbalusder.
Late Latin bufalusder.
Italian bufaloder.
Old French bufle
Middle French buffleder.
English buffe
English buff
From buffe (“leather”), from Middle French buffle (“buffalo”).
Meanings
To polish and make shiny by rubbing.
He was already buffing the car's hubs.
(qualifier:roleplaying games) To make a character or an item stronger.
The enchanter buffed the paladin to prepare him to fight the dragon.
I noticed that the pistols were buffed in the update.
(qualifier:medical slang) To modify a medical chart, especially in a dishonest manner.
"Sure thing, I buffed her, and they turfed her to urology, but she bounced back to me!" [...] They attempted to transfer her to urology by modifying her chart (buffing it) to request urine tests, but the doctors in urology sent (bounced) her back. 1996, Jeffrey E. Nash, James M. Calonico, The Meaning of Social Interaction: An Introduction to Social Psychology, page 139:
The implication of such an action is an invitation to buff the chart. The medical records department could have prevented the falsification by sending a copy of the chart to the attorney at the same time that they notified the hospital physician of the attorney's request for the chart. 2004, Gregory Davis, Pathology and Law, page 121:
(slang) To remove (graffiti), particularly when done by someone who is not a graffiti writer.
(archaic, slang, transitive) To strip to the bare skin.
es fortalecer (to make something stronger) · ru полирова́ть (to polish and make shiny) · nl oppoetsen (to polish and make shiny) · fi kiillottaa (to polish and make shiny) · es mejorar (to make something stronger) · es abrillantar (to polish and make shiny) · cmn 擦亮 (to polish and make shiny) · es pulimentar (to polish and make shiny) · cmn 抛光 (to polish and make shiny) · sv polera (to polish and make shiny) · cmn 增益 (to make something stronger) · ja バフ (to make something stronger) · de polieren (to polish and make shiny) · mi whakakanapa (to polish and make shiny) · sk vyleštiť vyblýskať (to polish and make shiny) · es bruñir (to polish and make shiny) · uk полірува́ти (to polish and make shiny) · mi aumiri (to polish and make shiny)
From Old French bufer (“to cuff, buffet”). See buffet (“a blow”).
Meanings
(obsolete) A strike; a blow.
Nathless so sore a buff to him it lent / That made him reel. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 6:
A man must consider what a blind-man’s-buff is this game of conformity. If I know your sect I anticipate your argument. 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”, in Essays: First Series:
From Middle English buffen (“to stutter, stammer”), from Old English byffan (“to mumble, mutter”), from Proto-West Germanic *bubjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyH- (“to fear, to be afraid”). More at bive (“tremble, shake”) and bever.
(countable, informal, uncountable) A buffalo, or the meat of a buffalo.
You will eat water buffalo meat and drink boiled water buffalo milk: buff burgers at Aunt Jane's restaurant, buff mo-mos which are the Tibetan won-tons, and buff steaks at The Globe. 1992, Marilyn Stablein, The Census Taker: Stories of a Traveler in India and Nepal, page 62:
[…] diced buff (buffalo) meat, usually heavily spiced […] 2006, Bradley Mayhew, Joe Bindloss, Stan Armington, Nepal:
For they had helmets on their heads, fashioned like wild beast's necks, and strange beavers or buffs to the same, and wore on their helmets great high plumes of feathers, as they had been wings : […] 1899, Selected Lives (orig. by Plutarch), page 317