buffe

Forms

buffe f^[1][2] Old French bufe;^[1][3] Anglo-Norman also had buf, bouffe, bofe and boffe.^[4]

Etymology

It is recorded first as Old French bufe; the origin is obscure.^[1][2] The TLFi and the Grand Robert consider it probably onomatopoeic, from an imitative stem buff- expressing first swelling and then noise, the stem also seen in bouffe.^[1][2][5] The DMF, the DÉCT and the Anglo-Norman Dictionary likewise file it under the FEW's imitative stem.^[6][3][4] Meyer-Lübke groups the imitative words of the Romance languages, among them Italian buffare (“to blow with puffed cheeks”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi's first record is bufe in Renaut de Montauban, about 1200, meaning a slap or violent blow.^[1] The Anglo-Norman Dictionary has a possible earlier record, queried and dated 1165–1180.^[4] Chrétien de Troyes uses bufe for a slap in the face.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Old French and Anglo-Norman the word meant a blow or knock, above all a slap on the cheek;^[3][4] the Anglo-Norman texts also use it for a puff or gust of wind, a whirlwind and an outburst.^[4] Godefroy records a separate sense “trickery” in Old French texts.^[8] In Middle French it was a slap, by extension a tap or a punch, beside the synonym buffeau.^[6]

The word was still current about 1600: Nicot glosses buffe with the Latin word alapa, and Cotgrave translates it as a blow or cuff on the ear.^[9][10] From 1704 the Dictionnaire de Trévoux calls it an old word.^[1] It came back into dictionaries in the 19th century and is now used only as an archaism, as Anatole France did in 1908.^[1][2]

Timeline

• 1165–1180 (?) – A queried Anglo-Norman record of buffe “blow”.^[4]
• c. 1200 – Bufe appears in Renaut de Montauban.^[1]
• c. 1356 – Buffes names the part of the helmet covering the cheeks.^[6]
• 1606 – Nicot records buffe as a synonym of soufflet.^[9]
• 1611 – Cotgrave translates it “a blow, cuff on the ear”.^[10]
• 1704 – The Dictionnaire de Trévoux labels it an old word.^[1]
• 1842 – It is recorded in the Académie's supplement, then by Bescherelle (1845).^[1]
• 1908 – Anatole France uses it in his life of Joan of Arc.^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic) A slap in the face, a violent blow.^[1][2]

Related words

• bouffe

Usage notes

Middle French also used buffe for the piece of a helmet that covered the cheeks (c. 1356;^[6][8] Antoine de La Sale, 1456),^[6][8] which Meyer-Lübke derives from Italian buffa (“visor of a helmet”).^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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
2. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014)
4. ^ a b c d e f Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 1, 597b
6. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon
9. ^ a b Nicot, Jean (1606), Thresor de la langue françoyse, tant ancienne que moderne, Paris: David Douceur
10. ^ a b Cotgrave, Randle (1611), A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, London: Adam Islip