buffet

Etymology 1

table Inherited from Middle English buffet (“stool”), from Middle French buffet (“side table”), from Old French buffet, of unknown origin. The modern pronunciation is remodelled after modern French buffet.

noun

1. A counter or sideboard from which food and drinks are served or may be bought.
2. Food laid out in this way, to which diners serve themselves.
   We'll be serving supper buffet style.
3. A small low stool; a hassock.

Etymology 2

table From Middle English buffet (“buffet”), from Old French buffet, diminutive of buffe, cognate with Italian buffetto. See buffer, buffoon, and compare German puffen (“to jostle, to hustle”).

noun

1. (countable) A blow or cuff with or as if with the hand, or by any other solid object or the wind.
   October 30, 1795, Edmund Burke, letter to Lord Auckland those planks of tough and hardy oak that used for years to brave the buffets of the Bay of Biscay
   Kipper stood blinking, as I had sometimes seen him do at the boxing tourneys in which he indulged when in receipt of a shrewd buffet on some tender spot like the tip of the nose. 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VII and XIV
2. (aviation, uncountable) The vibration of an aircraft when flying in or approaching a stall, caused by separation of airflow from the aircraft's wings.
   The aircraft configuration was such that there was little or no warning of the stall onset. The inboard slats were extended, and therefore, the flow separation from the stall would be limited to the outboard segment of the left wing and would not be felt by the left horizontal stabilizer. There would be little or no buffet. The DFDR also indicated that there was some turbulence, which could have masked any aerodynamic buffeting. Since the roll to the left began at V₂ + 6 and since the pilots were aware that V₂ was well above the aircraft's stall speed, they probably did not suspect that the roll to the left indicated a stall. In fact, the roll probably confused them, especially since the stickshaker had not activated. 21 December 1979, National Transportation Safety Board, “Aircraft and Flightcrew Performance”, in Aircraft Accident Report: American Airlines, Inc., DC-10-10, N110AA, Chicago-O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois, May 25, 1979, archived from the original on 2022-08-17, page 54

Etymology 3

table From Middle English buffeten, from Old French buffeter, from the noun (see above).

verb

1. (transitive) To strike with a buffet; to cuff; to slap.
2. (transitive, figurative) To aggressively challenge, denounce, or criticise.
   Buffeted by criticism of his policy on Europe, battered by rebellion in the ranks over his bill to legalize same-sex marriage and wounded by the perception that he is supercilious, contemptuous and out of touch with mainstream Conservatism, Mr. Cameron earlier this week took the highly unusual step of sending a mass e-mail (or, as he called it, “a personal note”) to his party’s grass-roots members. May 23 2013, Sarah Lyall, “British Leader’s Liberal Turn Sets Off a Rebellion in His Party”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-05-29
3. To affect as with blows; to strike repeatedly; to strive with or contend against.
   to buffet the billows
   The sudden hurricane in thunder roars, / Buffets the bark, and whirls it from the shores. 1726, William Broome, epistle to Elijah Fenton
   … I buffetted heat and mosquetoes, and got the hay all up … 1830, Joseph Plumb Martin, “Ch. I”, in A Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier
4. To deaden the sound of (bells) by muffling the clapper.