buff
adjective/bʌf/
/bʌf/
- pale yellow-brown in colour synonym beige
- a buff envelope
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- (informal) physically fit and attractive, with big muscles
- He was a tall buff guy in his thirties.
Word Originadjective mid 16th cent.: probably from French buffle, from Italian bufalo, from late Latin bufalus, from earlier bubalus, from Greek boubalos ‘antelope, wild ox’. The original sense in English was ‘buffalo’, later ‘oxhide’ or ‘colour of oxhide’.
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