1655. Comic Hist. Francion, iv., 22. He said to the three buffles who stood with their hats in their hands. Tell me you Waggs, etc. [m.].
1710. Pol. Ballads (1860), II., 90. To see the chief attorney such a buffle.
Buffle-Head, subs. (old).—An ignoramus; a stupid obtuse fellow. Cf., Buffle, and which see for synonyms.
1659. Lady Alimony, I., ii., in Hazl. Dodsley, xiv., 278. What a drolling buffle-head is this!
1663. Pepys, Diary, March 17. But my Lord Mayor a talking, bragging, buffle-headed fellow.
1668. Pepys, Diary, Jan. 29. He tells me that Townsend, of the Wardrobe, is the veriest knave and buffle-head that ever he saw.
1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, Act ii. Oliv. You know nothing, you buffle-headed stupid creature you.
1686. D'Urfey, Commonwealth of Women, I., i. A damn'd huffing fellow yonder, a Rebel, Whiggy buffle-head.
1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict., 2 ed. Buffle-head, an ignoramus, or dull sot.
1887. Dead Man's Rock, bk. I., ch. v. 'Jonathan's a buffle-head . . . a daft fule like Jonathan.'
Buffleheaded, adj. (old).—-Stupid; idiotic; foolish. [From bufflehead, a foolish fellow (q.v.), + ed.]
1883. Baring Gould, John Herring, vol. II., ch. xxv., p. 275. (Tauchnitz ed.) 'A buffleheaded sort of a chap,' said Joyce.
Buffs, subs. (military).—The Third Regiment of Foot in the British army. From their facings.—See Buff Howards.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. England, I., 295. The third regiment, distinguished by flesh-coloured facings, from which it derived the well-known name of the Buffs.
1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 232. His father was a captain in the Buffs, and himself a commissioned officer at seventeen.
1874. Saturday Review, p. 95. This regiment [the First or Grenadier Guards] has almost the longest record of any in the service, only yielding, we believe, to the 1st Royals, and to the 3rd Buffs, which were originally raised for the service of the States-General of Holland.
Buffy, adj. (common).—Intoxicated. For synonyms, see Screwed.
1866. Yates, Land at Last, I., p. 85. Flexor was fine and buffy when he came home last night, after you was gone, sir.
1872. Besant and Rice, R. M. Mortiboy, ch. xlii. 'My ideas take me first of all unawares. They generally begin, like a toothache, when I least expect them. Perhaps when I feel a little buffy, in the morning; mayhap, after an extra go of grog the night before. Then one comes all of a sudden.'
Bug, subs. (thieves').—1. A breast pin.
2. (Old Irish.)—A jeering name for an Englishman—Grose says 'because bugs were introduced into Ireland by Englishmen!!'
3. (American.)—The term bug is, in the United States, not confined merely, as in England, to the domestic pest, but is applied to all insects of the Coleoptera order, which includes what in this country are generally called beetles. The English bug (Cimex lectularius) is, in the Southern States, known as the chinch. It may be mentioned, however, that at Winchester College a usage akin to that prevailing in America exists. There a bug merely means an insect, whether belonging to the Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, or any other order. Synonyms for the English domestic pest will be found under Norfolk Howards.
