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Etymology and origin of the English word duff

Pronunciation

duff1 pudding; coal dust

Confidence
Established
First attested
1724
Ultimate origin
Old English dag
Etymology tree of duff1
inherited borrowed derived
English dough
English duff

Etymology

The pudding and coal-dust word is a northern variant from English dough.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] It reflects a pronunciation of dough recorded from at least the end of the 17th century: a spelling book of 1700 noted that dough was sounded duff, and the OED says the pronunciation became especially associated with sailors.[2] The OED and Cresswell take the coal-dust sense as probably a transferred use of the same variant,[2][9] and the OED also derives from it the sense of soft matter on a forest floor,[2] which Dictionary.com instead connects with dowf, a Scots word for decayed or rotten.[10] The phrase “up the duff”, pregnant, is of uncertain origin; the OED and Green's Dictionary of Slang suggest that it refers to the pudding, like “a bun in the oven” and “the pudding club”.[2][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Small coal and coal dust, also duff coal: 1724, in R. Hall's Observations on the Methods used in Holland.[2] Cresswell likewise dates the coal-dust sense to the early 18th century and calls it the oldest of the duff words.[9]

Semantic evolution

The pronunciation duff for dough was common among seamen, and the boiled flour pudding of ships' fare kept the form: the OED quotes an 1829 description of a sea pie in a crust of dough, "or as seamen will have it, ‘duff’".[2] Merriam-Webster dates the pudding sense to 1816 and the OED to 1828,[3][2] while Etymonline dates the nautical "stiff flour pudding" to 1840.[12] In the English Dialect Dictionary duff is a flour-and-water pudding in Scotland, Ireland, Cumberland, Yorkshire and the London streets, and fine coal or coal dust in Scotland, Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland and Yorkshire.[13] In Scotland and the United States the word was used from 1822 for the decaying leaves and other soft matter covering a forest floor.[2][14] The phrase up the duff, pregnant, began as Australian slang in the 1940s.[2][11][9]

Timeline

  • 1700 – duff noted as the pronunciation of dough.[2]
  • 1724 – small coal, coal dust.[2]
  • 1816 – a stiff flour pudding boiled in a bag.[3] The OED's first record is from 1828, and Etymonline dates the nautical sense to 1840.[2][12]
  • 1822 – decaying vegetable matter on a forest floor.[2]
  • 1941 – up the duff, pregnant, in Australian slang.[2][11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A stiff flour pudding, often with raisins or currants, boiled in a bag or steamed; plum duff.[3][5][2]
  2. Partly decayed organic matter covering a forest floor; leaf mould.[3][2]
  3. Fine coal; slack, coal dust.[3][2]
  4. up the duff (slang, originally Australian): pregnant.[5][2][11]

Word family

  • plum duff

duff2 something worthless; to fake, to bungle

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Back-formation
First attested
1750 Proceedings of the Old Bailey
Ultimate origin
English duffer

Etymology

The word for something worthless or fake is apparently a back-formation from English duffer (“a dishonest pedlar”), a slang word of unknown origin recorded from 1735; the OED derives from it both the verb (1750) and the noun (1781).[2] Merriam-Webster and Klein also take the verb as a back-formation from duffer,[3][7] while the Shorter Oxford calls the noun of unknown origin and the verb perhaps a back-formation.[14] Green's Dictionary of Slang compares instead a Yorkshire dialect verb meaning to avoid or dodge.[11] The adjective is formed from the noun.[2][3][11] The golfing verb, to play a shot badly, is of uncertain origin: the OED suggests a variant of the verb dowf or a special use of the faking verb,[2] and the Shorter Oxford a back-formation from duffer in its sense of an incompetent person.[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To sell goods under the pretence that they are valuable smuggled or stolen articles: 1750, in the Proceedings of the Old Bailey.[2] The noun, something worthless or fake, counterfeit money or smuggled goods, is first recorded in 1781, in George Parker's View of Society and Manners, which describes hawkers who passed off damaged goods as smuggled.[2][11][12]

Semantic evolution

The faking verb was used of selling cheap goods as contraband: Mayhew wrote in 1861 of hawkers who would "duff cigars".[11] In Australia from 1857 it meant to alter the brands on stolen cattle, or to steal cattle and rebrand them.[2][3] In northern dialect it meant to avoid or dodge (1866–1912) and to back out of an undertaking (1882–1923).[2] The adjective was first used of money, for counterfeit (1889); from 1938 it meant more generally worthless, useless or poor.[2][3] The golfing verb is recorded from 1890 and was extended to making a mess of anything;[2][14] Cresswell thinks it probably influenced the adjective's sense of something done badly.[9]

Timeline

  • 1750 – verb, to sell goods falsely passed off as smuggled or stolen (obsolete by 1892).[2]
  • 1781 – noun, something worthless or fake; counterfeit money; smuggled goods.[2][11][12]
  • 1857 – in Australia, to alter the brands on stolen cattle.[2]
  • 1866 – in northern dialect, to avoid or dodge (obsolete by 1912).[2]
  • 1889 – adjective, of money, counterfeit.[2][3]
  • 1890 – to play a golf shot badly; later, to bungle.[2]
  • 1938 – adjective, worthless, useless, poor.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. (British, informal) Of poor quality; useless, defective or worthless: We spent an hour hunting for the duff fuse.[3][5][14][2]
  2. Fake, counterfeit: duff banknotes.[2][11][14]

Verb

  1. (British, informal) To bungle; in golf, to mishit a shot, especially by hitting the ground behind the ball.[3][14][2]
  2. (Australian) To steal cattle and alter their brands; to rustle.[3][14][2]
  3. (slang) To fake; to make something look better or more valuable than it is.[3][14]

Noun

  1. (slang) Something worthless or fake, such as counterfeit money.[2][14][11]

duff3 buttocks

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
1835

Etymology

The word for the buttocks is of unknown origin.[3][12] The OED calls it uncertain, perhaps related to the pudding sense above,[2] the Shorter Oxford thinks it probably the same as the slang noun for something worthless,[14] and Green's Dictionary of Slang compares a West Yorkshire dialect use of the word for the backside.[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The buttocks: 1835, in the song “Kiss My Duff” in the Secret Songster.[11] The OED's first record is from about 1837,[2][3] and Etymonline dates the word to the 1830s.[12]

Semantic evolution

The word appears in 19th-century British songs, and a collection of folk phrases of 1894 records down on one's duff for being down on one's luck.[11] Merriam-Webster now labels it informal and chiefly American.[3]

Timeline

  • 1835 – the buttocks.[11] The OED dates it to about 1837.[2]
  • 1894 – down on one's duff, down on one's luck.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (chiefly US, informal) The buttocks; the backside: Get off your duff and help me clear the table.[3][2][14]

Usage notes

Other words spelled duff include the British slang verb duff up, to beat someone up, recorded from 1936 and of uncertain origin, perhaps imitating the sound of a dull blow,[2][9] and an imitative interjection and noun for a thud, from 1858.[2]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  9. ^ a b c d e Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  12. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Cite this entry

“Duff.” Etymologically, 31 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/duff. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

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