# Does anyone use the word "buffalo" any more? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 28, 2017, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-the-word-buffalo-any-more/794930 "2017-08-28T12:25:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-the-word-buffalo-any-more/794930/21 "2017-08-28T23:19:58Z")
Not since the bisontennial. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-the-word-buffalo-any-more/794930/22 "2017-08-29T00:52:48Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Not since the bisontennial. Gotta give you a _golf clap_ for that. ---
**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-the-word-buffalo-any-more/794930/23 "2017-08-29T01:02:51Z")
Herd of buffalo stampeding across the plains. Head buffalo screeches to a halt, yells, Hold it, hold it! Rest of the buffalos stop, and one says, what? Head buffalo says, I thought I heard a discouraging word. Yeah, I use it. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-the-word-buffalo-any-more/794930/24 "2017-08-29T03:27:00Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > I didn’t realize that psychiatric tests were graded. The ones that test different types of intelligence are. I was also surprised at how many different types of tests there were. The doctor I went to always does a bunch of tests of different modalities, to confirm the diagnosis. Not just those self-reported tests. He said that all the tests pointed towards my having OCD. I believe the vocabulary one had to do with comparing math and language skills versus visual-spacial skills. He even did the Rorschach tests, and I know why that one pointed towards OCD: I needed to make sure that every part of the picture represented something. Also, I hope the above didn’t come off as conceited. This sort of thing doesn’t come up much, and I thought it was relevant. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-the-word-buffalo-any-more/794930/25 "2017-08-29T03:37:03Z")
My dad always called his sisters the buffalo butt twins ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-the-word-buffalo-any-more/794930/26 "2017-08-29T03:53:49Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Something combining both, like using bullshit to intimidate. Just guessing but maybe it arises from the nature of buffalo to run right through anything in their way. But not really intimidation or bullying, more like using a bullshit statement to shut someone up. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-the-word-buffalo-any-more/794930/27 "2017-08-29T13:05:04Z")
I am reading an obscure translation from German and just today stubbed my toe on “He worked like a buffalo for us.” I had never heard such an expression before. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-the-word-buffalo-any-more/794930/28 "2017-08-29T13:18:09Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > I am reading an obscure translation from German and just today stubbed my toe on “He worked like a buffalo for us.” I had never heard such an expression before. See, if you hadn’t had this thread, you would have thought that he was assigned to roam around the western US consuming grass. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-the-word-buffalo-any-more/794930/29 "2017-08-29T13:52:27Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > See, if you hadn’t had this thread, you would have thought that he was assigned to roam around the western US consuming grass. I think it was supposed to be something like “He worked like an ox for us.” ---
**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-the-word-buffalo-any-more/794930/30 "2017-08-29T14:41:37Z")
Besides the degenerate grammar example from the OP, I can only ever think of a memorable line from the movie **Kill Bill: Vol. 2** : Budd: I never saw nobody buffalo Bill the way she buffaloed Bill. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-the-word-buffalo-any-more/794930/31 "2017-08-29T16:24:09Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > I am reading an obscure translation from German and just today stubbed my toe on “He worked like a buffalo for us.” I had never heard such an expression before. I imagine the reference there is to the domesticated water buffalo _Bubalus bubalis_. The water buffalo does have the reputation of being worked very hard in the countries where poor farmers depend on it. The verb _buffalo_ (“to intimidate”) apparently derives from the wild North American bison _Bison bison_. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-the-word-buffalo-any-more/794930/32 "2017-08-29T16:30:45Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > The verb _buffalo_ (“to intimidate”) apparently derives from the wild North American bison _Bison bison_. But the primary definition (at least in the dictionaries I’ve looked at) seems to be “to confuse or bamboozle.” Where does that come from in relation to the animal? ETA: Although it seems like everyone has a slightly different take on the word. [Etymonline](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=buffalo) has it defined as “alarm, overawe,” which I suppose is somewhat connected to “intimidate.” [Merriam-Webster](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/buffalo) has “bewilder, baffle; also bamboozle.” [Wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/buffalo) has a slew: 1) to hunt buffalo, 2) [slang] to outwit, confuse, deceive, or intimidate, 3) [archaic] to pistol whip." ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-the-word-buffalo-any-more/794930/33 "2017-08-29T16:46:34Z")
> [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](#): > > Herd of buffalo stampeding across the plains. Head buffalo screeches to a halt, yells, Hold it, hold it! Rest of the buffalos stop, and one says, what? Head buffalo says, I thought I heard a discouraging word. > Yeah, I use it. I’m stealing this. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-the-word-buffalo-any-more/794930/34 "2017-08-29T22:16:00Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > As a completely off-topic comment, I don’t know what it is about you guys, but for a city your size, I seem to meet a disproportionate amount of you; your denizens are everywhere. I even married one of them. (And dated another one in college.) Or maybe I just like Buffalonians and are naturally drawn to them. It’s just that the place sucks so thoroughly that substantially anyone who ever was there is now happily somewhere else. Or so says my wife who spent much of her childhood in Niagara a few miles downriver from Buffalo. And is equally happy to be far, far from either. 😃 ======= Serious reply. I’ve never heard “buffalo” used to mean intimidate. I’ve certainly read, heard, and used it to mean “mislead”. Or mentally overwhelm. e.g.If you can’t dazzle 'em with brilliance just buffalo 'em with bullshit. This tax form has me buffaloed; I can’t make any sense of it.I agree it’s an idiom that’s fading. FWIW I just searched my 19K posts here over 14 years and found three posts by me using “buffalo” as synonym for “baffle” or “confuse”.[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=18851070&highlight=buffalo\*#post18851070](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=18851070&highlight=buffalo%2A#post18851070) [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=18875557&highlight=buffalo\*#post18875557](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=18875557&highlight=buffalo%2A#post18875557) [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=18979831&highlight=buffalo\*#post18979831They](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=18979831&highlight=buffalo%2A#post18979831They) were all from a 6 week period in 2015 and nobody seemed to question or misunderstand the usage. One person even +1’ed one of them. Now what made me think of buffaloes that particular month and only that particular month is a mystery. IOW, I’m buffaloed. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-the-word-buffalo-any-more/794930/35 "2017-08-29T22:52:48Z")
I probably wouldn’t use it myself, but I hear it now and again. I don’t consider it archaic or anything. In fact, I may have herd it just the other day… ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-the-word-buffalo-any-more/794930/36 "2017-08-29T23:03:01Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > It’s just that the place sucks so thoroughly that substantially anyone who ever was there is now happily somewhere else… But the local cheese is fabulous. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-the-word-buffalo-any-more/794930/37 "2017-08-29T23:13:17Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > It’s just that the place sucks so thoroughly that substantially anyone who ever was there is now happily somewhere else. That is actually pretty much what my wife told me. I happen to love Buffalo, but I didn’t grow up there. (And even when I was living in Budapest, three of my close friends there ended up being from Buffalo, and none of them knew each other before meeting there. Buffalonians are everywhere.) ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-the-word-buffalo-any-more/794930/38 "2017-08-29T23:40:21Z")
I heard this joke in the UK decades ago (you’ll have to imagine a posh English accent for the implied punchline.) What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison? You can’t wash your hands in a buffalo! ---
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2017, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-the-word-buffalo-any-more/794930/39 "2017-08-30T00:18:15Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > I’m familiar with IQ tests, but I didn’t know they were used in a psychiatric setting. I would think IQ tests would be also used in a psychiatric setting to see if a person is fit to go to trial . ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2017, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-the-word-buffalo-any-more/794930/40 "2017-08-30T00:51:15Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > That is actually pretty much what my wife told me. I happen to love Buffalo, but I didn’t grow up there. (And even when I was living in Budapest, three of my close friends there ended up being from Buffalo, and none of them knew each other before meeting there. Buffalonians are everywhere.) In other words, Buffalo buffaloes Buffalonians’ efforts to remain Buffalonians! 😃 With a bit more work we can make that into something about their hapless NFL & NHL teams as well. Or would that be over-buffaloing the Buffalonians? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-the-word-buffalo-any-more/794930.md?page=1)