Other forms: buffs, buffing, buffed
To buff is to rub a surface gently until it shines. Buff the floor, buff it up, a buffing cloth.
It is the final stage of polishing, done with a soft cloth or a rotating pad. A buffer is the machine. Buff is also a pale yellowish brown, and in the buff means naked, both from buff leather. And a buff is an enthusiast: a film buff, a history buff — from the buff coats worn by nineteenth-century volunteer firefighters in New York, who attracted crowds of admirers.
1verbbuffTo rub gently until a surface shines.
“He buffed his shoes with a soft cloth until they shone.”
2nounenthusiastAn enthusiast for a particular subject.
“My uncle is a real history buff who can tell you about every battle.”
buff is a polishing, or an enthusiast.
The word comes from buffalo leather, a soft pale hide used for polishing cloths and for coats. The colour, the polishing and the enthusiast all descend from the same skin.
Italian
bufalo
Old French
bufle
Middle French
buffle — buffalo
English, today
buff
From buffe, from Middle French buffle (“buffalo”), from Old French bufle, from Italian bufalo.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA