What does buffet mean?
Buffet is a word with two distinct faces. In its most familiar use, it names a style of dining in which food is arranged on tables and guests serve themselves — common at weddings, hotels, and restaurants offering an 'all-you-can-eat' spread. The word also denotes the piece of furniture, originally a sideboard, on which such food is displayed. Separately, buffet functions as a verb meaning to strike or beat repeatedly, applied chiefly to wind and waves pounding a ship or coastline, and figuratively to a person battered by hard luck: 'buffeted by circumstance.' These senses arrived by different routes from French, which explains their differing pronunciations — /ˈbʊfeɪ/ for the meal and /ˈbʌfɪt/ for the blow. The verb carries a literary, slightly old-fashioned register today, while the noun is thoroughly everyday. Its dual identity makes it a striking example of how one spelling can carry two unrelated-seeming meanings.
A meal consisting of food set out on tables from which guests help themselves; also, a sideboard or long table used for serving food.
"The conference opened with a buffet of regional specialties."
To strike or batter repeatedly, especially said of wind, waves, or repeated blows; often used figuratively of hardship assailing a person.
"The fishing fleet was buffeted by gale-force winds overnight."
Pronounced /ˈbʌfɪt/, distinct from the noun's /ˈbʊfeɪ/. Largely formal or literary in contemporary use.
Standard plural for both the meal and the furniture sense; pronounced /ˈbʊfeɪz/.
"The hotel offers hot breakfast buffets every morning."
The same word that names your favorite all-you-can-eat dinner also describes what hurricanes do to coastlines — just say it with a different vowel.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of buffet
The noun 'buffet', meaning a sideboard or serving table, entered English in the sixteenth century from French 'buffet', a word of uncertain ultimate origin, possibly Germanic. The sense of a self-service meal developed later, becoming widespread in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The verb 'to buffet', meaning to strike repeatedly, likewise came from Old French 'buffeter' ('to hit, box the ears'), derived from the earlier noun sense of a blow. The two strands — furniture/meal and blow/battering — thus share a French source but reached English through different paths, accounting for their divergent modern pronunciations.
Related word forms
How buffet is actually used
The noun and verb have distinct standard pronunciations: the noun takes /ˈbʊfeɪ/, while the verb is /ˈbʌfɪt/. The verbal sense ('to buffet') is somewhat formal and literary today, most often used figuratively in phrases like 'buffeted by events'.
Easily confused with buffet
A buffer is something that absorbs shock or cushions impact, whereas to buffet is to strike or batter something repeatedly.