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From the sense “thud, wham” understood as a whoosh forming a bulge, and in the sense “cushion seat” semantic loan from Frenchpouf, the “laundry basket” apparently not present in French but extended in German from the broad sense in French of any textile heap.
1930–1943, Robert Musil, chapter 45, in Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften , book 1, Hamburg: Rowohlt Verlag, published 1957:
Aus der senkrechten Bügelfalte empor, schien Arnheims Leib in der Gotteseinsamkeit der Bergriesen dazustehn; durch die Welle des Tals mit ihm vereint, stand auf der anderen Seite einsamkeitsüberglänzt Diotima, in ihrem Kleid der damaligen Mode, das an den Oberarmen kleine Puffen bildete, über dem Magen den Busen in eine kunstvoll gefaltete Weite auflöste und unter der Kniekehle sich wieder an die Wade legte.
Borrowed from Englishpuff, hence often italicized and written with minuscule in early occurrences, and probably also sharing the English pronunciation.