buff

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an enthusiast; a yellowish-brown color; to polish

   She is a film buff who has seen every classic noir.

Simplified etymology

Buff originally meant a buffalo or other wild ox and then the strong, pale yellowish-beige leather made from its hide. Descriptions such as wearing buff or in buff, together with the leather’s resemblance to a white person’s skin, produced in the buff “naked.” The later slang sense “fit and attractive” comes from the idea of buffing or polishing, originally with buffalo leather. The enthusiast sense arose from the buff uniforms once worn by New York volunteer firefighters. The buff in blind man’s buff is an old word for “a blow, a buffet.”

From French buffle ('buffalo'), via the buff-colored leather made from buffalo hide. The 'enthusiast' sense derives from the buff-colored uniforms of volunteer New York firefighters, whom keen spectators followed.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary