Forms: 6 bufalo, (7 buffolo, boufaleau, -alo, 7–8 buffelo, 8 bufolo), 7– buffalo. Pl. buffaloes. [a. It. buffalo (Florio), bufalo, bufolo (Baretti), or Pg. búfalo:—vulgar L. *būfalus, a. Gr. βούβαλος (whence in literary L. būbalus), properly denoting a kind of antelope, but applied to a wild ox. Cf. BUFFLE, BUFF sb.2 The early quotations suggest that the word originally came into English from Portuguese.]
1. The name of several species of Oxen; esp. a. Bos bubalus, originally a native of India, inhabiting most of Asia, southern Europe, and northern Africa. It is tamed in India, Italy, and elsewhere. b. B. caffer, the Cape Buffalo of S. Africa. c. Applied in popular unscientific use to the American Bison.
a. 1588. Parke, trans. Mendoza’s China, 181. They doo plough and till their ground with kine, Bufalos, and bulles.
1665. Voy. E. India, 359. They have a Beast very large, having a smooth thick skin without hair, called a Buffelo, which gives good milk; the flesh of them is like Beef.
1682. Wheler, Journ. Greece, I. 74. Drawn … instead of Flanders Mares by a pair of Boufaleaus.
1756. Nugent, Gr. Tour Italy, III. 214. They … make use of buffalo’s in ploughing the land.
1843. Macaulay, Lays Anc. Rome, Lake Regillus, x. The … banks of Ufens, Where … buffaloes lie wallowing Through the hot summer’s day.
1850. Layard, Nineveh, x. 259. The cattle were … the buffalo and common ox.
b. 1699. Capt. Rogers, Descr. Natal, in Dampier’s Voy. (1705), II. III. 109. Buffaloes and Bullocks only are kept tame.
1731. Medley, Kolben’s Cape G. Hope, I. 79. They could discover in them [the woods] neither Elephant nor Buffalo.
1834. Pringle, Afr. Sk., viii. 269. The buffalo is a very … powerful animal … larger than the domestic ox.
1857. Livingstone, Trav., iii. 56. The presence of the buffalo … is a certain indication of water … within … seven or eight miles.
c. 1789–96. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 195. This animal [bison] has generally been called the Buffalo, but very improperly.
1836. W. Irving, Astoria (1849), 195. Boundless wastes … animated by herds of buffalo.
1877. J. Allen, Amer. Bison, 456. Probably among the people generally the name buffalo will never be supplanted.
2. ‘A sort of fresh-water fish resembling the Sucker’ (Bartlett).
1789–96. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 636. In the rivers are plenty of buffaloe, pike and catfish.
1884. W. H. Bishop, in Harper’s Mag., March, 516/2. The ‘buffalo’ and cat-fish … are not unfrequently as large as a man.
3. = buffalo-robe; see 4. colloq. U.S. & Canada.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xv. 181. Leaving all hands under their buffaloes.
1884. Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 3 Sept. Asked by the groom if he would like a couple of buffaloes (robes)…. ‘No,’ replied the scientist, ‘we would much prefer horses.’
4. Short for buffalo-horn: used by cutlers for making handles of pocket-knives; the varieties are Black Buffalo and Grey or colo(u)red Buffalo.
5. Comb., as buffalo-hide, -hunt, -hunter, -hunting, -range, -skin; buffalo-bag (cf. buffalo-robe); buffalo-berry, the edible scarlet fruit of a shrub (Shepherdia argentea) found on the Upper Missouri; also the shrub itself; buffalo-bird, an insessorial bird (Textor erythrorhynchus) which accompanies herds of buffaloes in S. Africa; buffalo-chips pl., the dried dung of the American bison, used as fuel; buffalo-clover, a species of clover (Trifolium pennsylvanicum) found in the prairies of N. America; buffalo-fish = sense 2; buffalo-grass, a kind of grass (Sesleria dactyloides) found in the prairies; buffalo-nut, the fruit of a N. American shrub (Pyrularia oleifera), also called Oil-nut; also the shrub itself; buffalo-robe, a cloak or rug made of the skin of the American bison dressed with the hair on.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xvi. 192. Two large *buffalo-bags, each made of four skins.
1856. Gard. Chron., 174. The felicity of tasting real *Buffalo-berries.
1857. Livingstone, Trav., xxvii. 545. *Buffalo-birds act the part of guardian spirits to the animals. Ibid. (1861), 357. The leader of the herd was an old cow, carrying on her withers about twenty buffalo-birds.
1844. Daily Picayune, 11 Oct., 2/4. We raised an extensive cloud of smoke from burning *‘buffalo chips’ to keep of the musquitos.
1859. Marcy, Prairie Trav., 268. Buffalo-chips for fuel.
1861. Russell, in Times, 10 July, 5/1. These long yellow rivers are very fine for … *buffalo fish to live in.
1883. F. E. Prendergast, in Harper’s Mag., Nov., 943/2. As the tall jointed grasses replace the short crisp *buffalo-grass with the coming of the homesteader.
1703. Lond. Gaz., No. 3919/4. A parcel of … *Buffelo-Hides, &c.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xvi. 193. The sick … were placed upon the bed of *buffalo-robes.
1835. W. Irving, Tour Prairies, 145. We passed … a *buffalo track, not above three days old.
