Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “buff” come from?

Buff comes from Middle French buffle, meaning buffalo or buffalo leather.

buff (English): Undyed leather from the skin of buffalo or...

Definitions

  1. Undyed leather from the skin of buffalo or...

Ancestry of “buff”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Englishbuffeleather
2Middle Frenchbufflebuffalo

Words derived from “buff”

  • buffer
  • buffering
  • buffing
  • buffy
  • framebuffer
  • buffish
  • bufferless
  • buffware
  • counterbuff
  • buffin
  • multibuffer
  • buffable
  • bufferdom
  • prebuffer
  • bufferhead
  • railbuff
  • cryobuffer
  • debuff
  • nonbufferable
  • autobuffering
  • buffly
  • multibuffering
  • unbufferable
  • bufferable
Every word from Middle French buffle →