[? Onomatopæic. Cf. BUFE. Partly perhaps imitating a dog’s bark (cf. BOUGH v., BAFF); partly an instinctive exclamation of contempt.]
A. as int. In phrases a. † To say neither buff nor baff, not to say buff to a wolf’s shadow (obs.). b. To say (or know) neither buff nor stye (Sc.): i.e., neither one thing nor another, nothing at all.
1481. Caxton, Reynard, K ij b. He wyste not what to saye buff ne baff.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 11 b. A certain persone, beeyng of him bidden good speede, said to hym again neither buff ne baff.
1581. N. Burne, Disput., 128 b (Jam.). Johann Kmnox ansuerit maist resolutlie, buf, baf, man.
1589. R. Harvey, Pl. Perc. (1860), 25. These toong-tide Curs that cannot barke, nor say buffe to a woulfes shadow.
a. 1750[?]. Jacobite Relics, I. 80 (Jam.). Who knew not what was right or wrong, And neither buff nor sty, sir.
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, ch. xii. ‘What say you to that?’… ‘I say neither buff nor stye to it.’
B. sb. Sc. (Perh. not connected with the prec.) ‘Nonsense, foolish talk’ (Jamieson).
1521. Ramsay, Addr. Town Council Edinb., 23. It blather’d buff before them a’, And aftentimes turn’d doited.
1739. A. Nicol, Poems, 84 (Jam.). Nae great ferly tho’ it be Plain buff … I’m no book-lear’d.
1790. Shirref, Poems, 338 (Jam.). It only gi’es him pain To read sic buff.
1813. W. Beattie, Poems (1871), Yule Feast, 1. Read: but should you think it buff, Throw’t out o’ sight.
