buff

¹

[ buhf ]

noun

1. a soft, thick, light-yellow leather with a napped surface, originally made from buffalo skin but later also from other skins, used for making belts, pouches, etc.
2. a brownish-yellow color; tan.
3. a buff stick or buff wheel.
4. a devotee or well-informed student of some activity or subject:

   Civil War buffs avidly read the new biography of Grant.

5. Informal. the bare skin, or the state of being nude:

   swimming in the buff;

   stripped to his buff.

6. Also called buffcoat. a thick, short coat of buffalo leather, worn especially by English soldiers and American colonists in the 17th century.
7. Informal. a buffalo.

adjective

1. having the color of buff.
2. made of buff leather.
3. Slang. physically attractive; muscular.

   Synonyms: burnish

verb (used with object)

1. to clean or polish (metal) or give a grainless finish of high luster to (plated surfaces) with or as if with a buff stick or buff wheel.
2. to polish or shine, especially with a buffer:

   to buff shoes.

3. to dye or stain in a buff color.

buff

²

[ buhf ]

verb (used with object)

1. (in a video game) to enhance (player characters' attributes or abilities) with a spell, skill, or item:

   If you buff your party with a skill that increases movement speed, make sure everyone is in the area of effect—you wouldn’t want to leave your healer in the dust!

2. to reduce or deaden the force of; act as a buffer.

noun

1. (in a video game) a category of spell, skill, or item that enhances player characters' attributes or abilities:

   Your build is specific to your job class, so a DPS Shaman and a DPS Druid might bring different buffs.

2. Chiefly British Dialect. a blow; slap.

buff

¹

/ bʌf /

noun

1. 1. a soft thick flexible undyed leather made chiefly from the skins of buffalo, oxen, and elk
   2. ( as modifier )

      a buff coat

2. 1. a dull yellow or yellowish-brown colour
   2. ( as adjective )

      buff paint

3. Also calledbuffer
   1. a cloth or pad of material used for polishing an object
   2. a flexible disc or wheel impregnated with a fine abrasive for polishing metals, etc, with a power tool
4. informal.
   one's bare skin (esp in the phrase in the buff )

verb

1. to clean or polish (a metal, floor, shoes, etc) with a buff
2. to remove the grain surface of (a leather)

buff

²

/ bʌf /

noun

1. informal.
   an expert on or devotee of a given subject

   a cheese buff

buff

³

/ bʌf /

verb

1. tr to deaden the force of

noun

1. archaic.
   a blow or buffet (now only in the phrase blind man's buff )

Other Words From

• buffa·bili·ty noun
• buffa·ble adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of buff¹

First recorded in 1545–55; 1900–05 buff ¹fordef 4; earlier buffe “wild ox,” back formation from buffle, from Middle French, from Late Latin būfalus; buffalo; buff ¹( def 4 ) originally a person enthusiastic about firefighting and firefighters, allegedly after the buff-colored uniforms once worn by volunteer firefighters in New York City

Origin of buff²

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English buffe “blow; clash.” back formation from buffet ²

Word History and Origins

Origin of buff¹

C16: from Old French buffle , from Old Italian bufalo , from Late Latin būfalus buffalo

Origin of buff²

C20: originally US: an enthusiastic fire watcher, from the buff-coloured uniforms worn by volunteer firemen in New York City

Origin of buff³

C15: back formation from buffet ²

Idioms and Phrases

see in the buff .

Example Sentences

Simmons provides the biceps as the St. Nick in question, a buff Father Christmas.

From Los Angeles Times

He is very blond and buffed — not buff but, like sanded and polished.

From Los Angeles Times

Video Archives was a mecca for all manner of film buffs and it was an environment Tarantino thrived in.

From BBC

Movie buffs might be reminded of one of the final lines Heath Ledger’s Joker delivered to Batman: “I think we’re destined to do this forever.”

From Salon

Three feature main characters who are geniuses; in the fourth, everyone is buff and athletic, which is its own kind of genius, I suppose.

From Los Angeles Times

About This Word

What else does buff mean?

Buff originally refers to light-yellow leather made from buffalo skins. It has taken on many slang terms, though, including:

• being naked
• shining up something
• being muscular and fit
• being particularly knowledgeable about something
• and, in gaming lingo, strengthening a player’s stats.

Where does buff come from?

Before we get into all the different things buff can mean as a slang term, it’s helpful to go all the way back to the beginning. Buff, as you may have guessed, comes from buffalo. In the 1570s, buff leather referred to buffalo-skin leather, which is particularly thick and soft.

By the early 1600s, buff came to refer to nudity (as in in the buff) because of the association with naked (white) bodies and the creamy, light-yellow leather of buff.

In the 1800s, buff leather cloths were used to polish metals.

Buff became a verb by 1849 for polishing things to make them shiny and more attractive. It’s this sense of buff—”to polish and make attractive,” sometimes with actual oil—that people had in mind in the 1980s when they referred to someone who was physically fit as buff. This term was particularly applied to people who had big, bulging muscles (think Arnold Schwarzenegger) because, well, they look shiny and attractive.

Buff, for “strong and muscular,” is what gamers had in mind in the mid-1990s when they began to buff up their characters in role-playing games. Early references to buffing up players come from games like Ultima Online, where gamers would exchange tips on how to exploit rules to buff stats so their avatars would be harder, better, faster, stronger. The opposite of buffing a player is nerfing them (i.e., making them weaker, such as foam Nerf toy guns).

Finally, to understand how buff came to refer to someone with a particular interest and passion for something (like, say, a history buff), we have to go back to 1800s America. There weren’t standing fire departments in most cities, then, so instead, young men had to volunteer. These temporary firefighters became known in New York in the 1830s as fire buffs for the buff uniforms they wore.

By 1915, the term buff had spread to other domains to refer to an amateur enthusiast about anything, like a sports buff who can tell you the stats of every Pittsburgh Steeler dating back to the 1960s.

How is buff used in real life?

The meaning of buff varies widely depending on context.

While it sounds a bit dated these days (the expression is from the 1600s, after all), you can still refer to someone who is naked as being in the buff—usually with that specific phrasing. It’s a slightly more polite or humorous way to refer to nudity.

– I just told my wife that I saw some old photos of Bryan Cranston on set, in the buff.
– Breaking Bad nudes?
– No she seemed quite pleased tbh.

— Paul Eggleston (@pauleggleston) May 31, 2019

Whether you use an actual buff-leather cloth or not, polishing something to make it shine is still referred to as buffing it. Sometimes it’s modified with an intensifying up, as in to buff up something. This verb is transitive, so you’ll usually want to clarify what is being buffed (e.g., The choir boy buffed up his dress shoes).

Buff as an adjective usually refers to someone who is physically quite fit. It can also refer just generally to someone who is attractive, usually because of their physique, as in Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is so buff.

In the gaming world, and especially MMORPGs, a buff player is one that has been improved in some way, either within the rules of the game, or not. You can cast a spell or use a potion to make your player buff—or you could use a cheat. You can also give a buff to someone else, as it’s said, meaning you give them an item to help them out.

When you're playing an MMO and a nice rando heals you or gives you a buff pic.twitter.com/tAQm8iuOq2

— Chwistopher (@Loudwindow) November 25, 2018

Using buff for someone with a deep, if amateur, knowledge of a subject typically requires a description of what they’re interested in. There are history buffs, butterfly buffs, or fitness buffs.

More examples of buff:

“Nails should be one-eighth to one-quarter inch beyond the tip of the fingers. Buff or polish the nail.”
—Kathryn J. Volin, Buff and Polish, 2004

“In order to have a buff body, you must commit to a program that works.”
—Daryl Conant, Buff Daddy, 2011

Note

This content is not meant to be a formal definition of this term. Rather, it is an informal summary that seeks to provide supplemental information and context important to know or keep in mind about the term’s history, meaning, and usage.