buffet

Forms

buffet m (plural buffets)^[1] Old French bufet (about 1150), then buffet (1268).^[2]

Etymology

The origin is obscure.^[2][3][4] The likeliest but vague explanation is that it is from Old French buff- (“sound of a puff of air”), the imitative root of bouffer.^[2][3][5][6] Bloch and Wartburg connect it with Old French buffet (“bellows”), perhaps because the piece of furniture first had a board that could be let down;^[7] Rey finds no text describing the furniture well enough to support this, nor its link with the sense “blow” of the same Old French word, from buffe (“slap”).^[2] A link with “swelling”, through Old French bufoi (“pride”), is no better documented, and a link with Old French bufet (“poor wine”) is unlikely.^[2] Wiktionary also mentions a possible Celtic source.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

About 1150 bufet meant a stool, a sense found until the 16th century.^[2][3][5] In this sense it passed into English as Middle English buffet (“stool”).^[2] The GLLF and Bloch and Wartburg read the 12th-century record in the Roman de Thèbes as a kind of table.^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

The sense “table, sideboard, counter” is found once in 1268, in Étienne Boileau, and again in 1606 for a stand displaying the plate at a meal; it fell out of use but set the course of the word.^[2][7] Buffet then named the plate itself (1532), a table where people went to drink (1690) and, from 1832, the long table of food and drink at a reception, whence the food served, the room and the reception itself.^[2] A railway station buffet is recorded from 1863.^[2]

With the stress on storage, it has named since 1547 a dining-room or kitchen cupboard for dishes and table linen.^[2] By its shape it gave the case of an organ (1680, buffet d'orgue 1694), and by its function the familiar sense “belly, stomach” (1803).^[2] Danser devant le buffet “to have nothing to eat” is recorded from 1835.^[8][2]

Timeline

• c. 1150 – Bufet “stool” is first recorded.^[2][3]
• 1268 – Étienne Boileau uses buffet for a kind of table.^[2][4]
• 1547 – First used of a cupboard for dishes.^[2]
• 1680 – The case of an organ;^[2] buffet d'orgue in 1694.^[2]
• 1803 – Familiar sense “belly”.^[2]
• 1832 – The table of food and drink at a reception.^[2]
• 1835 – Danser devant le buffet in Larchey.^[8]
• 1863 – The railway station buffet.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sideboard: a piece of dining-room or kitchen furniture for storing dishes, silverware and table linen.^[5][9]
2. Danser devant le buffet (familiar): to have nothing to eat.^[5][10]
3. A table set with cold dishes, pastries and drinks at a reception, and the food and drink served on it: buffet campagnard.^[5][10]
4. A station refreshment room: buffet de gare.^[9][1]
5. Buffet d'orgue: the wooden case of an organ.^[11][2]
6. (familiar) The belly or stomach.^[1][2]

Word family

• buffetier

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 1, 598a
7. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
10. ^ a b 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
11. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette