# A Buff



## eno2

For a long time I thought that "a buff" was a muscular torso.
Especially during the years that I  was training in the gym, I was  very happy with my so called "buff"

I don't know any more where I picked up that meaning of the word "Buff". I must have read it a few times here and there.
But  "Buff" is a tan, for instance. I could have misinterpreted. And it has also to do with leather.

Confused,  I went looking for confirmation of my acceptation of the word. An I didn't find much. Nothing, as a matter of fact.

So I concluded I was wrong.

But later on I saw that to buff means to flatten. So that could refer to a flat stomach.

Furthermore in WR dicc between the many meanings figures the adjective buff as

"physically attractive; muscular."

(WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2016)


I also checked all the threads with buff in the title on WR and only one post  confirms my buff acceptation.

Here's another meaning out of one of those threads: a Buff = someone who's enthusiastic about something....

Was I right or wrong*? Could I have (had) a buff after all, meaning a muscular torso? *I have a tan as well...


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## Englishmypassion

I found this in Oxford:
*buff
ADJECTIVE*
_North American  informal
(Of a person or their body) in good physical shape with well-developed muscles:_
"the driver was a buff blond named March".


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## eno2

OK that's one confirmation. Thx.

The thing is, I saw it and thought of it as a noun.


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## joanvillafane

I confirm that I've only heard "buff" used as an adjective.  Never with a definite article as in your first example.


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## heypresto

joanvillafane said:


> I confirm that I've only heard "buff" used as an adjective.  Never with a definite article as in your first example.



  Me too. As a noun, I'm only familiar with 'someone who's enthusiastic about something', as in a jazz buff, or computer buff.


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## joanvillafane

Oh, yes, I forgot about that!  Thanks, heypresto.


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## eno2

And what about a buff as a tan?


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## GreenWhiteBlue

"Buff" is the name of a color.  As a New Yorker who regularly travels through New Jersey to Pennsylvania, I often see the flag of the state of New Jersey, as well as New Jersey license plates, all of which are officially buff in color.  You can read all about the color buff in  this Wikipedia article.


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## velisarius

"In the buff" means "naked", and I would be very puzzled if the noun were used as defined in #2.

I've never seen "buff", the colour, used to refer to a suntan  (or generally to a skin-tone - unless "in the buff" implies "buff-coloured naked skin").


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## eno2

velisarius said:


> "In the buff" means "naked", and I would be very puzzled if the noun were used as defined in #2.



Yes, I just found that in





> Merriam-Webster:"protected by a fully enclosed backyard, the couple would frequently sunbathe in the _buff_"


= in the nude...



> I've never seen "buff", the colour, used to refer to a suntan  (or generally to a skin-tone).



Well. it's the same buff color. And this usage-significance is effectively mentioned in various dictionaries Buff=tan.
Perhaps American?


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## heypresto

The colours 'buff' and 'tan' may be similar, but that doesn't mean 'a buff' can mean 'a suntan'.

Or that we would call the colour of a suntan, 'buff'.


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## GreenWhiteBlue

Buff = tan as in "the color called _buff _is similar to the color called _tan_."

_Percy says my new shoes are tan, but I think they are definitely more buff than tan.
_
However, I have never come across the word _buff _to mean a suntan.  I would understand it if someone said "I am going to lie on the beach to work on my _tan_", but if anyone said "I will lie on the beach and work on my _buff_", I would have no idea what was meant.


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## eno2

heypresto said:


> The colours 'buff' and 'tan' may be similar, but that doesn't mean 'a buff' can mean 'a suntan'.
> 
> Or that we would call the colour of a suntan, 'buff'.



Sorry but as  buff is mentioned as a suntan in various dictionaries, as I said previously, I have to accept that significance until proven wrong.


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## velisarius

I hope you are going to share with us: which dictionaries give "suntan" as a definition for "buff"?


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## Hildy1

Is it possible that you are thinking about "a fitness buff"? That is a person who is very interested in fitness, and goes to the gym often.


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## eno2

velisarius said:


> I hope you are going to share with us: which dictionaries give "suntan" as a definition for "buff"?


Though I'm only in a buff as a muscular torso,  I'll try and gather previous search results about a tan. ..


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## GreenWhiteBlue

eno2 said:


> Sorry but as  buff is mentioned as a suntan in various dictionaries, as I said previously, I have to accept that significance until proven wrong.



I concur with velisariius; I can find no dictionary that gives this odd and peculiar definition for buff, and have certainly never heard a native speaker use the word with this meaning -- yet you seem to have found several such dictionaries that provide this definition.  Could you perhaps share with us the names of two of them?


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## eno2

Hildy1 said:


> Is it possible that you are thinking about "a fitness buff"? That is a person who is very interested in fitness, and goes to the gym often.


No, I didn't know even that meaning of the word buff.


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## eno2

eno2 said:


> I'll try and gather previous search results about a tan. ..







> buff - WordReference.com Dictionary of English
> 
> a buff:
> a brownish yellow color;
> tan.



A buff is a tan, that refers to the colour. But a tan is also short for a suntan....It's unnerving.


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## velisarius

No, that buff (the colour) is marked "uncountable".
*
a brownish yellow color; tan. - *It's the colour "tan".


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## eno2

velisarius said:


> No, that buff (the colour) is marked "uncountable".
> *
> a brownish yellow color; tan. - *It's the colour "tan".



As I said myself, it's the colour.
. But you're right, it's marked at the right handside, with a lot of white space in between, which is why I didn't see it marked as "uncountable"


And what about this:



> But a tan is also short for a suntan....It's unnerving.



A buff perhaps doesn't exist (though it might in SLANG).
But a tan exists. And it's a suntan.


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## eno2

> Merriam-Webster
> *buff*
> _adjective_
> *Simple Definition of buff*
> 
> having a strong, muscular body or form



Buff is having a strong, muscular body or form. But you cannot say: I have a buff. You should say: I have a buff body



> Romas was a towering example of male perfection: blond with golden skin and bright blue eyes, a chiseled face and *buff* body, and tall.
> Read more at Use buff in a sentence | buff sentence examples


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## eno2

eno2 said:


> But a tan is also short for a suntan..





> Thick dark lashes and a deep *tan* intensified the blue of his eyes, and his freshly shaven face had attractive angles.
> Read more at Use tan in a sentence | tan sentence examples





> His strong profile was masculine without being rugged, and a healthy olive *tan* suggested an outdoor hobby.
> Read more at Use tan in a sentence | tan sentence examples



I take this to be a suntan. Tan short for suntan.


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## eno2

Ok I admit that when I read in dictionaries buff=tan, I took that for a suntan while tan was  uncountable, a color.

Therefore I was under a second false impression (the first being a buff=a muscular torso) that a buff=a suntan.

A buff doesn't exist as a noun, with the meaning of "someone with a muscular body". 
It's always an adjective.

Schwarzenegger is buff. Schwarzenegger is not a buff. 

Thank you all for clarifying.


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## Delvo

eno2 said:


> But later on I saw that to buff means to flatten. So that could refer to a flat stomach.


The verb "buff" is really more synonymous with "smooth" (used as a verb), not "flatten". It means eliminating surface roughness by rubbing an object with a pad or cloth and some kind of abrasive treatment, but not really changing the object's general shape. The result would be that the thing you've buffed looks smoother or shinier, not flatter.


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## PaulQ

As an aside, the OED contains 13 meanings of "buff": five nouns; two adjectives; six verbs (2 obs.) and one noun/interjection, plus a number of phrases, etc.


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## eno2

Delvo said:


> The verb "buff" is really more synonymous with "smooth" (used as a verb), not "flatten". It means eliminating surface roughness by rubbing an object with a pad or cloth and some kind of abrasive treatment, but not really changing the object's general shape. The result would be that the thing you've buffed looks smoother or shinier, not flatter.



Yes thx

Confirmed here: 




> *
> 
> verb
> 
> *
> 
> *Buff means to smooth, clean or shine by rubbing.*
> *
> An example of to buff is using a many textured foam block to smooth and shine finger nails.
> 
> 
> 
> Read more at Buff dictionary definition | buff defined*


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## eno2

PaulQ said:


> As an aside, the OED contains 13 meanings of "buff": five nouns; two adjectives; six verbs (2 obs.) and one noun/interjection, plus a number of phrases, etc.


OED?

O online 
E English?  
D dictionary

OED gives no specific hit on google.


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## PaulQ

OED = Oxford English Dictionary; widely regarded as the most authoritative dictionary of the English language. This may be found at Home : Oxford English Dictionary but requires a subscription.


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## eno2

PaulQ said:


> OED = Oxford English Dictionary; widely regarded as the most authoritative dictionary of the English language. This may be found at Home : Oxford English Dictionary but requires a subscription.


Subcription. 

I own one, it's with my
stockpiled furniture.

I'm travelling light for six years now.

Sorry, OED gives Oxford English Dictionary as the first google result, I searched for Online English Dictionary, which didn't.


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## eno2

Found an extra significance:


> informal Make (an element in a role-playing or video game) more powerful.
> _‘there are cards that'll buff your troops’_


_buff - definition of buff in English | Oxford Dictionaries



velisarius said:



			No, that buff (the colour) is marked "uncountable".
*
a brownish yellow color; tan. - *It's the colour "tan".
		
Click to expand...


I could be entirely forgiven for interpreting the noun 'TAN' as a short for SUNTAN: 



			Tan:  n. 

Physiology a brown color appearing on the skin after exposure to the sun:[countable]on the beach getting a tan.


Click to expand...

tan - WordReference.com Dictionary of English

Just above the 'uncountable' tan. 







_


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## heypresto

eno2 said:


> I could be entirely forgiven for interpreting the noun 'TAN' as a short for SUNTAN:



 Yes, a 'tan' is indeed a short version of a 'suntan'.


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## GreenWhiteBlue

Unless one is exceptionally pallid, one does not turn_ buff_ in color when one has a suntan.


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## kentix

Not all people with a (sun)tan have the same color of skin. Tan in that context just means darkened. Tanned skin does not generally look like the color "tan". Notice how one of the examples you used above talks about an olive tan. That means that person's skin is olive colored when it darkens in a tan. But, then again, olive skin is not the color of an olive, so those are two different things again.

Olive skin - Wikipedia


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## eno2

GreenWhiteBlue said:


> Unless one is exceptionally pallid, one does not turn_ buff_ in color when one has a suntan.



OK, perhaps, I can't judge that, you can. But WR gives buff = tan as a colour (uncountable). #19



kentix said:


> Not all people with a (sun)tan have the same color of skin. Tan in that context just means darkened. Tanned skin does not generally look like the color "tan". Notice how one of the examples you used above talks about an olive tan. That means that person's skin is olive colored when it darkens in a tan. But, then again, olive skin is not the color of an olive, so those are two different things again.
> 
> Olive skin - Wikipedia



Now that I got rid of my initial erroneous impression that a buff = a (sun)tan,  I'm not enthusiast any more nor insisting on the value of buff as a synonym of the colour tan.  Even though WR  has it.


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## kentix

Buff is a color and tan is a color but neither are the color of tanned skin.


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## eno2

kentix said:


> Buff is a color and tan is a color but neither are the color of tanned skin.


A tanned skin that's not tan: admit it's rather confusing.


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## kentix

"White" skin is not white. "Black" skin is not black. Tanned skin is generally not tan (the color).

Here's a link to the color called olive. Can you imagine someone with an "olive tan" having that color skin? 
W3Schools Color Test. Background=Olive

Naming colors is a tricky business.


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## RedwoodGrove

The word "buff" is also a verb meaning to polish. I don't think the bodybuilder version (adjective) has anything to do with color.


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## dojibear

eno2 said:


> A tanned skin that's not tan: admit it's rather confusing.



Sure, English is confusing. Absolutely. 

There are hundreds of English words used to describe specific colors. "Buff, tan, beige, cream" are four of these. Their meaning is not the same as "the thing they derived from".


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## eno2

My sitting room had a lounge-suite, upholstered with light- brownish tanned bovine leather, tan or buff. Never knew the name of the colour in English. In painting terms I would say: ochre.


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## RM1(SS)

PaulQ said:


> As an aside, the OED contains 13 meanings of "buff": five nouns; two adjectives; six verbs (2 obs.) and one noun/interjection, plus a number of phrases, etc.


Is _buff coat_ in there?  It's the first thing I thought of when I saw the thread title, but it's not in the WRF dictionary.

(Wiki link)


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## eno2

I read somewhere about the buff-coat. Not in wiki.


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## kentix

A B-52 bomber is also known as a buff.


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## RM1(SS)

As was one of the larger types of helicopter used by US forces in Vietnam.  Even after all these years of use, I would still write it _BUFF_.


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## RedwoodGrove

eno2 said:


> Was I right or wrong*? Could I have (had) a buff after all, meaning a muscular torso? *I have a tan as well...


To call someone "buff" as in having a muscular torso with good definition is very common around here and has been so for at least 25 years. I've never heard of the meaning "to flatten". I still think it has nothing to do with ox hide or color.  Online Etymology 

Dictionary
buff (adj.) 


"well-built, hunky," 1980s, from buff (v.) "polish, make attractive."


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## eno2

Call somebody buff..What do you say then? He's buff, (#24). You're buff?

When I openend the thread I was under the impression that someone could HAVE A buff. But that was not correct.


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