buffalo: [16] English probably acquired buffalo from Portuguese bufalo, originally naming the ‘water buffalo’, Bubalis bubalis, a large oxlike animal of Asia and Africa, and subsequently extended to the ‘Cape buffalo’ of South Africa, Syncerus caffer. The Portuguese word came from late Latin bufalus, an alteration of Latin bubalus, which was borrowed from Greek boúbalos. The Greek word, which seems to have named a type of African gazelle, may have been formed from bous ‘ox’. The application of the word to the North American bison, which is still regarded as ‘incorrect’, dates from the late 18th century. => buff
buffalo (n.)
1580s (earlier buffel, 1510s, from Middle French), from Portuguese bufalo "water buffalo," from Latin bufalus, variant of bubalus "wild ox," from Greek boubalos "buffalo," originally a kind of African antelope, later used of a type of domesticated ox in southern Asia and the Mediterranean lands, perhaps from bous "ox, cow" (see cow (n.)). Wrongly applied since 1630s to the American bison. Buffalo gnat is recorded from 1822.
Buffalo
city in western New York state, U.S., of disputed origin (there never were buffalo thereabouts), perhaps from the name of a native chief, or a corruption of French beau fleuve "beautiful river." Buffalo wings finger food so called because the recipe was invented in Buffalo (1964, at Frank & Teressa's Anchor Bar on Main Street).
buffalo (v.)
"alarm, overawe," 1900, from buffalo (n.). Probably from the animals' tendency to mass panic. Related: Buffaloed; buffaloing.
雙語例句
1. Once there were 70 million buffalo on the plains.
北美大平原上曾有過7,000萬頭野牛。
來自柯林斯例句
2. A cluster of vultures crouched on the carcass of a dead buffalo.
一群禿鷲蹲伏在一具野牛的尸體上。
來自柯林斯例句
3. The festival commemorates the slaying of the demon buffalo.
那個節日是為了紀念殺死魔牛。
來自柯林斯例句
4. You can see the fresh buffalo dung on the country road.
你可以在鄉間小路上看到剛屙下不久的水牛糞.
來自《簡明英漢詞典》
5. Asian buffalo isn't as wild as that of America's.