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I'm still trying to figure this out. Assuming you're not talking about the verb (like "to buff the visor on your helmet"), then "buff", in firefighter parlance, is something you want to avoid unless you enjoy the ridicule of your colleagues. I think "buff" might mean going overboard in an effort to appear to be a totally "cool" firefighter or EMS person; "buff" is having every conceivable gadget on your belt; all the latest toys. For instance, I think if I had succombed to the impulse to buy one of those really cool EMT jackets I saw in the catalog with the extra pockets for flashlights, sheers, forceps, pager and stethoscope and all the patches and reflective lettering and velcro, I might have found myself firmly in the "buff" category. Of course, someone told me this morning that this website was "buff". I found that rather alarming. |
| Update, April 2004: Mystery solved (though, if you tell anyone I found this information in Reader's Digest, I'll deny it to the hilt!)... We may buff a waxed floor, call someone in great shape buff, even ask politicians if they sleep in the buff. Strangely, all these buff's arise from the obsolete English word buffe, from the French word for buffalo. When buffalo were abundant in the 19th century, buffalo hide was a popular material for making coats. The yellowish color of the skins inspired the expression in the buff -- an allusion to the similarity of buff leather and human skin tones. The name buff leather was then applied to other types of soft leather used for polishing metal to a high gloss -- inspiring the verb to buff and our more modern adjective buff. But that's not all. New York City firefighters once wore buffalo-skin coats. Amateur firefighters tagged along on calls, emulating the pros right down to their buff-colored coats. The volunteers came to be known as buffs, which came to include other kinds of enthusiasts too. |