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Monday 9 August 2021

Spot the Frippet: buff.

 Buff is a soft undyed kind of leather used for polishing things. That's how the word started out, anyway.

It then spread its wings a bit and came to describe anything light brown or yellowish brown (because that's the colour of the leather).

If you live in the country you might see a Buff Orpington:

photo by Smudger94


but if you're like me the nearest buff thing to you will be an envelope:



Ah well.

A buff can also be a polishing pad, but to be in the buff means you're naked, and to be buff (or well buff) describes a body honed to beauty by exercise:

scene from an Ancient Greek amphora

I didn't find much of interest in the Olympics, myself: but if there was anything, it was that.

Spot the Frippet: buff. Buff leather comes from cattle, elk or buffalo, and it's this last animal which has given the stuff it's name.  The Old Italian name for this animal was bufalo, and the Latin was būfalus.

this animal is a European buffalo, usually known nowadays as a bison. Photo: Talks Presenters 09 (talk) at Wikimedia Commons





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