buss

Etymology 1

Uncertain. First attested in the 1560s.; possibly an ancient unrecorded word ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bu, but in any case likely imitative of kissing. Compare Welsh bus (“kiss, lip”) (may have influenced English), Persian بوس (bus, “kiss”) and Latin basium (“kiss”).

noun

1. (archaic) A kiss.

verb

1. (transitive, now often poetic or dialectal) To kiss (either literally or figuratively).
   'I take the privilege, Mistress Ruth, of saluting you.' ...And therewith I bussed her well. 1869, Richard Blackmore, Lorna Doone, page 1
   As the repatriated explorer dodges down to buss the earth […] he is so thoroughly caught up in the rhapsody of the moment that he fails to take into account the traffic behind him. 1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 189
   Sam...really was six-ten and his head bussed the ceiling. 2007, Winter 61, Fiddlehead
2. (intransitive) To kiss.
   In the faint glow of a single blue bulb hanging from a clothesline they bussed and fondled. 2007, James Isaiah Gabbe, LaRue's Maneuvers, Chapter 10, LaRue, The Blue Light, p259-60

Etymology 2

From Dutch buis.

noun

1. A herring buss, a type of shallow-keeled Dutch fishing boat used especially for herring fishing.

Etymology 3

noun

1. Archaic form of bus (“passenger vehicle”).
   1838, Charles Dickens, "Omnibuses", Sketches by Boz We will back the machine in which we make our daily peregrination from the top of Oxford-street to the city, against any buss on the road, whether it be for the gaudiness of its exterior, the perfect simplicity of its interior, or the native coolness of its cad.