buffer

See also:Buffer

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation)IPA^(key):/ˈbʌfə(ɹ)/,[ˈbɐfə(ɹ)]
• (General American)IPA^(key):/ˈbʌfɚ/

• Audio(US):

  (file)

• (General Australian)IPA^(key):/ˈbafə(ɹ)/,[ˈbäfə(ɹ)]

• Audio(General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes:-ʌfə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

Noun

buffer(pluralbuffers)

1. Someone or something thatbuffs(polishes and makes shiny).
   1. Amachinewithrotarybrushes,passed over a hard floor to clean it.
   2. A machine for polishing shoes and boots.
2. (slang,archaic,Ireland)Aboxer.
   • 1821,Pierce Egan (the Elder),Boxiana; or, Sketches of antient and modern pugilism(page 117)

     Such abufferas Donnelly, / Ereland never again will see.

3. (finance)reserves, savings.

Derived terms

• buffer lass
• buffer rodeo
• circular buffer

Translations

someone or something that buffs

• Finnish:kiillottaja(someone);kiillotuskone(machine)

Adjective

buffer

1. Comparativeform ofbuff:morebuff.

Etymology 2

Agent noun from obsolete verbbuff(“make a dull sound when struck”)(mid-16c.), fromOld Frenchbuffe(“blow”).

The “boatswain's mate” sense is said to be popularly explained by the mate being a “buffer”, that is intermediary, between officers and men, but various other explanations have also been proposed.

Noun

buffer(pluralbuffers)

1. Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.
   1. (chemistry)Asolutionused tostabilizethepH(acidity) of aliquid,such as by resisting a change in pH when anacidoralkaliis added.
   2. (mechanics)Anything used to maintainslackorisolatedifferent objects.
   3. (telecommunications)A routine or storage medium used to compensate for a difference in rate of flow of data, or time of occurrence of events, when transferring data from one device to another.
   4. (rail transport)A device on trains and carriages designed to cushion the impact between them.
      • 1885,W. S. Gilbert,The Mikado,Act II, inThe Mikado, and Other Plays,New York: Modern Library, 1917, p. 42,[2]

        The idiot who, in railway carriages, / Scribbles on window panes, / We only suffer / To ride on abuffer/ In Parliamentary trains.

      • 1951May, “British Railways Standard Coaches”, inRailway Magazine,page327:

        The underframe, which has been designed to take buffing loads of 200 tons both on the centre coupler and on the retractable sidebuffers,consists of two centre girders from which cantilevers project to support the solebars, which in turn carry the bodyside structure.

      • 1953,C. S. Lewis,chapter 14, inThe Silver Chair,Collins, published1998:

        Then, with a shock like a thousand goods trains crashing into a thousand pairs ofbuffers,the lips of rock closed.

   5. (rail transport)The metal barrier to help prevent trains from running off the end of the track.
      • 2024January 10, Christian Wolmar, “A time for change?... just as it was back in issue 262”, inRAIL,number1000,page61:

        Of course, I was not always right. I questioned the value of Crossrail (a scheme revived by Prescott after being scrapped by the Conservatives), suggesting wrongly that it may be "doomed to hit thebuffers"[…].A dozen years later, I published my book on it, extolling the line's wonders. We are all allowed to change our minds.

   6. Anisolatingcircuit,often anamplifier,used to minimize theinfluenceof a driven circuit on the driving circuit.
   7. (computing)A portion ofmemoryset aside to temporarily storedata,often before it is sent to an external device or as it is received from an external device.
   8. (politics,international relations)Abuffer zone(such as a demilitarized zone) or a buffer state.
   9. (figurative)Agapthat isolates or separates two things.
      • 2011November 10, Jeremy Wilson, “England Under 21 5 Iceland Under 21 0: match report”, inTelegraph‎^[3]:

        An utterly emphatic 5-0 victory was ultimately capped by two wonder strikes in the last two minutes from Aston Villa midfielderGary Gardner.Before that, England had utterly dominated to take another purposeful stride towards the 2013 European Championship in Israel. They have already established a five-pointbufferat the top of Group Eight.

2. (UK,nautical,slang)The chiefboatswain's mate.
   • 2001,Mark Higgitt,Through Fire and Water,page43:

     He decided to run for president of the POs' Mess against theBuffer,Chief Bosun's Mate Mal Crane, but the two had a face-to-face in his cabin one night in Narvik and sorted it out.

   • 2015,Peter Broadbent,A Singapore Fling: An AB's Far-Flung Adventure:

     I happen to be on the brow handing my Bosun's Mate duties over to an Ordinary Seaman when theBufferarrives with an unofficial Side-Party to man the brow with Bosun's Calls at the ready.

Derived terms

• buffer beam
• bufferbloat
• bufferhead
• bufferize
• bufferless
• buffer overflow
• buffer overrun
• buffer solution
• buffer solution
• buffer state
• buffer stock
• buffer stop
• buffer underrun
• buffer zone
• buffer zone
• cryobuffer
• direct buffer
• framebuffer
• gap buffer
• G-buffer
• immunobuffer
• multibuffer
• non-direct buffer
• printer buffer
• riparian buffer
• stencil buffer
• volatility buffer
• z-buffer

Translations

anything used to isolate or to minimise the effects of one thing on another

• Esperanto:bufro(eo)
• Finnish:puskuri(fi)
• French:tampon(fr)m
• Maori:pākai,tauārai
• Spanish:búferm,parachoques(es)m,amortiguadorm,intercesor(es)m,mediador(es)m,aislador(es)m,aislante(es)m
• Welsh:byfferm

solution to stabilize pH

• Danish:pufferc,bufferc
• Dutch:buffermengseln
• Esperanto:bufro(eo)
• Finnish:puskuriliuos,puskuri(fi)
• French:solution tampon
• Greek:ρυθμιστικό διάλυμαn(rythmistikó diályma)
• Indonesian:bufer(id),penyangga(id),dapar
• Italian:soluzione tampone
• Macedonian:пуферm(pufer)
• Maori:mehanga whakatautika
• Occitan:solucion tamponf
• Polish:bufor(pl)m
• Portuguese:solução tampão
• Spanish:tampón,solución amortiguadora,solución reguladora
• Swedish:buffert(sv)c,buffertlösningc

portion of memory in computing

• Bulgarian:бу́ферm(búfer)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin:Giảm xóc khí／Giảm xóc khí(zh)(huǎnchōngqì),Giảm xóc khu(huǎnchōngqū)

• Czech:vyrovnávací paměťf,bufferm
• Dutch:buffer(nl)m
• Esperanto:bufro(eo)
• Estonian:puhver
• Finnish:puskuri(fi)
• French:tampon(fr)m,mémoire tampon(fr)f
• German:Puffer(de)m
• Greek:ενδιάμεση μνήμη(el)f(endiámesi mními),πρόσκαιρη μνήμηf(próskairi mními)
• Hebrew:חוֹצֵץm(hotsets)
• Icelandic:biðminnin
• Japanese:バッファ(ja)(baffa),バッファー(ja)(baffā)
• Latin:conditorium intermediumn,memoria intermediaf
• Lithuanian:buferis
• Maori:pūreirei
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål:bufferm

• Occitan:memòria tamponf
• Persian:بافر(phát)(bâfer)
• Polish:bufor(pl)m
• Portuguese:buffer(pt)m
• Romanian:memorie tamponf,memorie intermediarăf
• Russian:бу́фер(ru)m(búfer)
• Serbo-Croatian:međuspremnikm
• Spanish:memoria intermediaf,antememoriaf
• Swedish:buffert(sv)c,buffertminne
• Turkish:arabellek(tr)
• Vietnamese:bộ nhớ đệm,vùng nhớ đệm,bộ đệm

Verb

buffer(third-person singular simple presentbuffers,present participlebuffering,simple past and past participlebuffered)

1. To use a buffer or buffers; toisolateor minimize the effects of one thing on another.
   • 1962October, G. Freeman Allen, “The New Look in Scotland's Northern Division—II”, inModern Railways,page274:

     The electronic apparatus is designed tobufferup the sorted wagons in the sidings at a speed not exceeding 4.7 m.p.h.—a particularly important provision in this yard, with its substantial traffic in whisky.

   1. (video games)Toqueue up(an input) so that it is performed immediately once it is possible.

      Some games let youbufferjumps—if you hold the jump button mid-air, your character will jump as soon as they touch the ground.

2. (computing)To store data in memory temporarily.
3. (chemistry)To maintain the acidity of a solution near a chosen value by adding an acid or a base.

Derived terms

• bufferable
• buffer up
• debuffer
• prebuffer
• rebuffer
• unbuffer

Translations

to isolate, to minimise the impacts of one thing on another

• Dutch:inperken(nl)
• Finnish:eristää(fi),puskuroida
• Maori:tauārai
• Spanish:amortiguar(es),aislar(es),interceder(es),mediar(es)

maintain a given acidity

• Finnish:puskuroida
• French:tamponner(fr)
• Italian:tamponare(it)
• Maori:whakatautika
• Portuguese:tamponar(pt)
• Spanish:tamponar

Etymology 3

Noun

buffer(pluralbuffers)

1. (colloquial)A good-humoured, slow-witted fellow, usually an elderly man.
   • 1864-1865,Charles Dickens, “Book The First, chapter 2" The Man from Somewhere "”, inOur Mutual Friend‎^[4],archived fromthe originalon6 January 2014:

     Lastly, the looking-glass reflects Boots and Brewer, and two other stuffedBuffersinterposed between the rest of the company and possible accidents.

   • 1864-1865,Charles Dickens, “Book The First, chapter 10" A Marriage Contract "”, inOur Mutual Friend‎^[5],archived fromthe originalon6 January 2014:

     Here, too, are Boots and Brewer, and the two other Buffers; eachBufferwith a flower in his button-hole, his hair curled, and his gloves buttoned on tight, apparently come prepared, if anything had happened to the bridegroom, to be married instantly.

   • 1955,C[live] S[taples] Lewis,The Magician’s Nephew,London:The Bodley Head,→OCLC:

     I can’t expect two youngsters like you to find it much fun talking to an oldbufferlike me.

Derived terms

• bufferdom

Anagrams

• rebuff

Danish

Etymology

FromEnglishbuffer.

Noun

bufferc(singular definitebufferen,plural indefinitebuffere)

1. (chemistry)buffer

Declension

Declension ofbuffer

common gender	Singular		Plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	buffer	bufferen	buffere	bufferene
genitive	buffers	bufferens	bufferes	bufferenes

Synonyms

• puffer

Further reading

• “buffer”inDen Danske Ordbog

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed fromEnglishbuffer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):/ˈbʏ.fər/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation:buf‧fer
• Rhymes:-ʏfər

Noun

bufferm(pluralbuffers,diminutivebuffertjen)

1. abufferforstorage
2. a buffer,marginfor safety
3. (rail transport)a buffer(device on trains and carriages designed to cushion the impact between them)

Derived terms

• bufferen
• buffergeheugen
• bufferstaat
• buffervoorraad
• bufferzone
• geheugenbuffer

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowingfromEnglishbuffer.

Noun

bufferm(invariable)

1. (computing)buffer

   Synonym:memoria tampone

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowingfromEnglishbuffer.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil)IPA^(key):/ˈbɐ.feʁ/[ˈbɐ.feh]

• (Brazil)IPA^(key):/ˈbɐ.feʁ/[ˈbɐ.feh]
  • (São Paulo)IPA^(key):/ˈbɐ.feɾ/
  • (Rio de Janeiro)IPA^(key):/ˈbɐ.feʁ/[ˈbɐ.feχ]
  • (Southern Brazil)IPA^(key):/ˈbɐ.feɻ/

• (Portugal)IPA^(key):/ˈbɐ.fɛɾ/

Noun

bufferm(pluralbuffers)

1. (computing)buffer(memory for temporary storage)

Romansch

Alternative forms

• buffar(Rumantsch Grischun,Sursilvan)
• bufar(Sutsilvan)
• boffar(Vallader)

Etymology

(Thisetymologyis missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at theEtymology scriptorium.)

Verb

buffer

1. (Puter)toblow

Synonyms

• (Rumantsch Grischun,Sursilvan)sufflar
• (Sutsilvan,Surmiran)zuflar
• (Puter)zufler
• (Vallader)sofflar

Spanish

Noun

bufferm(pluralbuffers)

1. (computing)buffer