pufo

From English puff. Compare Italian buffo, German puffen (“to puff”).

• IPA^(key):
• Rhymes: -ufo
• Hyphenation: pu‧fo

pufo (accusative singular pufon, plural pufoj, accusative plural pufojn)

1. puff
2. wad

• pufi
• pufmaizo

Attested since circa 1845. Probably onomatopoeic.

• IPA^(key):

pufo m (plural pufos)

1. debt, specially when there is no intention to settle it

   Synonym: débeda

   O xestor deixou un pufo de 5 millóns de euros ― The manager left a debt of € 5M

   • 1884, O tío Marcos da Portela, II, 31:

     pido con xusticia qu'o señor Gobernador pubrique unha real orde impoñendo castigos ós pufistas, pois señores, os xastres estamos cheos de pufos hastr'a cabeza

     I ask with justice that the Governor publish a royal decree imposing a punishment on the scammers, because, gentlemen, we the tailors are filled with unpaid debts till our heads

2. scam; dirty business

   Synonym: calote

• pufento
• pufista

• → Spanish: pufo

• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “pufo”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “pufo”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “pufo”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

Borrowed from Galician pufo, which is attested a century earlier.

pufo m (plural pufos)

1. (colloquial, Spain) scam

• “pufo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10