h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Buff, I always thought referred to the colour. It used to be pink, but I've given up that particular peccadillo.

Don't think I wasn't tempted, K, but even I tremble at the thought of reprimanding WS.

Buff does refer to the (supposed) colour of nakedness - it is also the colour of the Confederate soldiers' uniforms in the civil war and there is a story of them being attacked whilst skinny-dipping in a mill pond but I can find no evidence that this is the origin of "in the buff".

'Salmon coloured' is often used.

I've only heard of buff the colour from raffle (cloakroom type, not big raffles) tickets.

Then, of course, there's Call My Buff, the naturists' word quiz show.

You also get buff coloured folders - well, you do if you work in an industry as married to the conventional as insurance

Any of you wise people know where the buff comes from in 'Blind man's buff'?

Yes - its short for "buffet" as in to "knock about violently".

When played by adults you are allowed to crash into (buffet) the blind man.

I suspect, K, that it is Bluff, not Buff. As in trying to deceive the sightless.

If you persist with your spelling, then maybe it derives from buffer as in 'banging into'.

Thinking even more (thats twice in one day!) how do buffers get their name (The stopping buffers at the end of the railway line and, methinks (three times!) on the train itself.

The buffers buff each other, where buff is another word for buffet.
If you know three meanings of "buff", do you become a "buff" buff?

Come to think of it, where did that kind of buff - one who know a lot about a (usually arcane) subject - come from?

A buffer is the part to allow the excess to run off into without causing damage I thought.
Perhaps we need a buffer zone to be set up to keep out the references to the original posting in the thread.

And someone who pretends to know is an old buffer.

(I must stop dropping my l's)

Re CSA undress uniforms - butternut, I believe, not buff.
One might be rebuffed if one buffets an old buffer in the buff on a buff buffet.

The game is Blind Man's Buff, not Bluff, although many people do call it Bluff. Duncan is right about the origin of the term.

Buffet?

Where does the phrase "doing a bunk" meaning to run away or escape from imprisonment come from? There's also the schoolboy phrase "bunking off" meaning getting out of doing any work...these aren't related to bunk beds in any odd way are they?

Don't know, but make me wonder why you de-bunk someone or something.
Perhaps bunking is getting one over (as bunk beds are one on top of the other) and de-bunking is the stopping of someone putting one over you.
Just a non random thought.

I thought that this thread has been going on for a while now so I brought you all some biscuits and some Vimto

* Place down a tray laden with Bourbons, Jammie dodgers, custard creams and a huge jug of Vimto *

Enjoy

Thanks indeed - that should line the tummy

Perhaps when you debunk someones theory, you reduce the bunkum to just 'um?'.

Vimto, a good british invented word. There is an nice sculpture in the UMIST grounds in homage to the sickly sweet blackcurrant and grape drink.

I was watching the festival of rememberance at the weekend and in it they had someone reciting part of Kippling's poem Tommy. The line which suprised me was that of "An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit" I didn't realise that we'd be having it large for over a hundred years (the poem was published in 1889).

So where does Barrack come from? (The poem was published in Barrack Room Ballads).