baff

• IPA^(key): /bæf/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æf

From Middle English baffen (“to bark”). Cognate with Dutch baffen (“to bark”), Low German baffen (“to bark”), German baffen, bäfzen (“to bark”), Danish bjæffe (“to yelp”), Swedish bjäbba (“to yelp, bark”). Compare buff, yaff.

baff (third-person singular simple present baffs, present participle baffing, simple past and past participle baffed)

1. (intransitive, archaic) To bark; yelp.

Probably from Scots baff, beff, bauf, probably from West Flemish baf, baffe (“a blow, slap in the face”). Compare also Old French baffe (“slap in the face”) (Modern French baffe), of imitative origin.

baff (third-person singular simple present baffs, present participle baffing, simple past and past participle baffed)

1. To hit or strike, especially with something flat or soft.
2. (golf) To strike the ground with the bottom of the club when taking a stroke.

• baffed out
• baffy

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

baff (uncountable)

1. (Geordie, Scotland) blank (Can we add an example for this sense?)

• Frank Graham, editor (1987), “BAFF”, in The New Geordie Dictionary, Rothbury, Northumberland: Butler Publishing, →ISBN.
• Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4

From an interjection for “bang, boom”, now usually in the form paff, of onomatopoeic origin.

• IPA^(key): /baf/

• Audio:

  (file)

baff (strong nominative masculine singular baffer, comparative baffer, superlative am baffsten)

1. (informal, chiefly predicative) stunned, flabbergasted

   Synonyms: verblüfft, verdutzt

   • 2020 June 1, “Verliebt, verlobt – verschieben?”, in Die Zeit‎:

     Sie haben gejubelt, hatten Ballons dabei und haben uns Glückwünsche zugerufen. Wir waren so baff. Manche kamen nur dafür von richtig weit her.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• “baff” in Duden online