puff

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English puffen,^[2][3][4][5] inherited from Old English pyffan (“to breathe out, blow with the mouth”),^{[6][7][3][8][9]} probably imitative of the sound of breath blown out through the lips.^{[10][7][11][3][5][12]} The noun is inherited from Middle English puf, also puffe, perhaps continuing pyf (“a puff of wind”);^{[7][11][13][14]} the OED takes it either from the verb or as a separate imitative formation.^[10] Similar imitative words are Middle Dutch puffen (“to puff, blow”) and Dutch poffen,^{[10][11][14][2]} Low German puf,^[11][14] Alemannic German pfuffen and Norwegian puffa,^[15][9] and German puffen (“to hit, strike”) is recorded from the 16th century.^[10] Klein compares Middle English buffen (“to strike”) and Italian buffo (“blast of wind”), and so buff and buffoon.^[8] Johnson derived it from Dutch pof, "a blast which swells the cheeks".^[16]

Earliest recorded meaning

To blow out breath or air in a short blast: the verb is recorded in Old English glosses to Aldhelm, about 1000,^[10][5] and Bosworth-Toller glosses it "to breathe out".^[6] The noun, a sudden brief burst of wind or breath, is first found in late Old English, in Alfred's translation of Boethius.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In early Middle English the Ancrene Riwle (about 1225) uses the verb for blowing something away and blowing out a flame, and the noun for a short blast.^[10][5] The verb came to mean "to pant, breathe hard", about 1300 in the OED and in the late 14th century in Etymonline.^[10][7] Because a puff of breath fills things out, the word also turned to swelling: the verb meant to fill or inflate with air by the 1530s,^[7][11] and the noun was used of light, swollen pastry, before 1399 in Barnhart and in 1419 in the OED.^[5][10][7] From swelling came pride and empty talk: the verb meant "to exalt" from the 1530s, and the noun "an empty boast, bombast" from 1567;^[7][5] from these grew the noun's sense of flattery or inflated praise (1732) and, by the early 18th century, the verb's sense of praising with self-interest.^[7][5] Weekley places the literary and advertising sense in the 18th century.^[17] Johnson (1755) defined puff as "a quick blast with the mouth" and "a small blast of wind".^[16] A puff for powder, at first a small bellows, then a pad, appears from the mid 17th century;^[10][7] other senses are puffing at a pipe (1664),^[10] a steam engine moving with puffs of smoke (1828),^[10] breath or stamina in out of puff (1827),^[10] and in British slang marijuana (1989).^[10] In Scots and Irish dialect puff-and-lal was empty boasting.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – verb, to blow out breath or air.^[10][5]
• late Old English – noun, a brief burst of wind or breath.^[10]
• c. 1225 – to blow away; to blow out a flame; noun puf, a short blast, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[10][5]
• c. 1300 – to pant, breathe hard.^[10]
• before 1399 – a light pastry (1419 in the OED).^[5][10]
• 1530s – to inflate with air; to exalt.^[7]
• 1567 – an empty boast, bombast.^[5][7]
• 1664 – to smoke a pipe.^[10]
• 1732 – flattery, inflated praise; a pad for applying powder.^[7][5][10]
• 1827 – breath, as in out of puff.^[10]
• 1828 – of a steam engine, to move giving out puffs.^[10]
• 1989 – British slang, marijuana.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A short, quick gust or blast of air, breath, smoke or steam, or the amount released: a puff of smoke.^[15][4][10]
2. The soft sound of such a blast.^[15][10]
3. A draw on a cigarette or pipe.^[15][10]
4. A light, hollow pastry with a sweet or savoury filling; puff pastry.^[15][10]
5. A powder puff.^[15][10]
6. Exaggerated praise of a book, product or performer, especially in an advertisement.^[15][7][5]
7. A swelling.^[15][7]
8. (chiefly British, informal) Breath; stamina: After the third flight of stairs he was out of puff.^[10]
9. (British slang) Cannabis.^[10]

Verb

1. To blow in short gusts, or to give out air, smoke or steam in puffs.^[4][10]
2. To breathe hard and fast; to pant.^[10][7]
3. To draw on a cigarette, pipe or cigar.^[10]
4. To swell or fill out with air: The pigeon puffed up its chest.^[7][11]
5. To praise in exaggerated terms, especially to advertise.^[7][5]
6. Of a steam engine or a person, to move along giving out puffs or panting.^[10]

Word family

• puffily
• puffiness
• puffy
• puffingly
• puffbird

Related words

• puffin
• buff
• buffoon
• pouf
• poof

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
10. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
18. ^ 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)