Other forms: buffers, buffering, buffered
To buffer is to load and store data ahead of time so that a video or a song plays without stopping. The spinning circle and the word buffering; a podcast that buffers for ten seconds on the train and then runs clean to the end.
The noun is the store itself: a buffer holds data on its way from one place to another, and a buffer overflow is a classic security bug. Away from screens, a buffer is anything that takes a shock — a buffer zone between two armies, savings that buffer you against a bad month, the sprung metal pads on the end of a railway carriage, which come as a pair and are called buffers. Chemistry has its own: a buffer solution keeps acidity steady. In British English, a plan that hits the buffers has run out of track and stopped. Two f's in the middle, and do not confuse it with buffet.
1verbbufferTo store data in advance so that sound or video plays without breaks.
“The film kept buffering every couple of minutes.”
2nountemporaryA temporary store for data on its way between two places.
“The recording goes into a buffer before it reaches the disk.”
3nounharmA person or thing that protects something from harm or shock.
“Her savings acted as a buffer when the work dried up.”
4nounsprungOne of the sprung pads at the end of a railway carriage or at the end of a line.
“The train rolled gently up to the buffers and stopped.”
5verbbadTo protect someone or something from a shock or a bad effect.
“A good manager buffers the team from company politics.”
Buffer is buff plus -er, the ending that names the thing doing the action, the way opener and cooker are built. The meanings all fan out from one idea, something that takes the knock: the sprung pad on a railway carriage, the zone that keeps two armies apart, the little store of data that keeps your film from stuttering.
Italian
bufalo
Old French
bufle
Middle French
buffle — buffalo
English
buff
English, today
buffer
From buff + -er. From buff + -er. buff comes from buffe, from Middle French buffle (“buffalo”), from Old French bufle, from Italian bufalo.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA