bouffer

Forms

bouffer^[1] Old French bufer, buffer, rarer bofer, bouffer.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French bufer (“to blow”), inherited from Vulgar Latin *buffō (“to blow”), a Proto-Romance verb formed on an expressive base ⟨buff-⟩ evoking the sound of breath let out of a mouth that has been puffed up.^[2][4][5] The revised TLF notice explains the ⟨ou⟩ of the modern verb as a partial remaking of the inherited ⟨buffer⟩: once Latin /u/ had become /y/ in French, the verb lost some of its expressive sound, and /u/ was put back.^[2] Rey and the Grand Robert treat it as an expressive formation on the root ⟨buff-⟩ within French, which also gave bouffir.^[6][7] Littré held this verb and pouffer to be two forms of the same word.^[8]

Cognate with Old Occitan bufar, Italian buffare (“to blow with puffed cheeks”), Catalan bufar, Spanish bufar, Portuguese bufar, Sardinian buffare and Romansh buffar.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record, in the Sept Sages de Rome (last third of the 12th century), is of a wild boar blowing noisily: Il vit l'enfant, prist a bufer “he saw the child and began to snort”.^[2] Until the end of the 15th century it is used of blowing: of an animal, of an angry man, of a smith fanning the fire, of the wind.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense “to puff out the cheeks” declined in the 17th century: the Académie called it low in 1694.^[6] The figurative “to show anger” (about 1226) also died out, though the related bouffi keeps it in bouffi d'orgueil.^[6] From 1530 the verb was used of a light material that swells out, as a sleeve or a dress, a sense still current; it was also said of bread rising in the oven (1606) and, in butchery, of blowing up the skin of a slaughtered animal (Richelet, 1680).^[2][6]

The sources disagree about the sense “to eat greedily”: the Grand Robert dates it to the mid-19th century and takes it, through Marot (1535) and the derivatives bouffard and bouffeur “glutton”, from cheeks puffed out with food, as do Rey and Bloch and Wartburg.^[7][6][5] The revised TLF notice finds it no earlier than 1800 (Boiste: a popular word for manger), holds that Marot's bouffer only means “to swell” and that bouffard and bouffeur meant a puffed-up, vicious person, and puts the rise of food words in this family in the slang of the Revolution.^[2] In the 20th century it became a barely marked synonym of manger, with figurative senses: se bouffer le nez “to quarrel” (1867), bouffer des briques “to have nothing to eat” (1894), bouffer des kilomètres (1921).^[6][2] In Algeria and the Republic of the Congo it is also used for embezzling public money.^[6]

Timeline

• Late 12th century – Bufer of a snorting boar in the Sept Sages de Rome.^[2]
• c. 1226 – “To show anger”.^[6]
• 1467 – Said of the wind blowing.^[2]
• 1530 – Said of a sleeve that swells out.^[2]
• 1680 – Richelet records the butcher's sense.^[2]
• 1694 – The Académie calls the sense “to puff out the cheeks” low.^[6]
• 1800 – Boiste records bouffer “to eat” as popular.^[2]
• 1867 – Se bouffer le nez “to fight”, in Delvau.^[2]
• 1894 – Bouffer des briques in Virmaître's slang dictionary.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To puff out, stay puffy, of a light material or of hair: une jupe qui bouffe.^[9][10]
2. (familiar) To eat greedily, gobble; also simply to eat: on a bien bouffé.^[9][1]
3. (familiar, figurative) To consume or use up in large amounts (money, petrol, time).^[1][2]
4. (familiar) To devour, dominate or wear out someone: se laisser bouffer par son travail.^[2][1]
5. (familiar) Se bouffer, se bouffer le nez: to quarrel violently.^[2][9]
6. (dated) To puff out the cheeks, in anger.^[11][10]

Word family

• bouffant
• bouffée
• bouffarde
• bouffette

Related words

• bouffir
• bouffon
• pouffer

Usage notes

The Grand Robert gives two headwords, bouffer “to puff out” and bouffer “to eat”, the second derived from the first.^[7] The set phrase bouffer les pissenlits par la racine means “to be dead and buried”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Steinfeld, Nadine; Buchi, Éva, eds. (2005–), TLF-Étym: révision des notices étymologiques du Trésor de la langue française informatisé, Nancy: ATILF
3. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 1:1026
4. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 1, 594b
5. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
11. ^ Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard