The story
- Italian · derived frombuffone“jester”
- Middle French · borrowed frombouffon
- English todaybuffoon
From Middle French bouffon, from Italian buffone (“jester”), from buffare (“to puff out the cheeks”), of onomatopoeic origin. Compare Middle High German buffen ("to puff"; > German büffen), Old English pyffan (“to breathe out, blow with the mouth”). More at English puff.
Words from the same roots
Italianbuffone all →
Buffone
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.