Obs. Also 6 bulfeld ?, 6–7 buffell, Sc. buffil, bufle, 7 bufall, buffel, -al(l, -ol. [a. F. buffle, a common Romanic word:—vulgar L. *būfalus (= L. būbalus): see BUFFALO. Cf. also BUFF sb.2 Some of the Eng. spellings in 17th c. show influence of the It. or Sp. forms.]
1. A buffalo; = BUFFALO 1 a, b.
c. 1511. 1st Eng. Bk. Amer. (Arb.), Introd. 29/1. There [in India] be bulfeldes [? buffelles] & coyes [? cowes] but the coyes slepe [? sleye] they not.
1532. Victory agst. Turkes, in Dibdin’s Typog. Antiq. (1816), III. 117. In euery place abode … buffelles.
1623. Favine, Theat. Hon., II. xiii. 223. A mouing Chariot, drawne by Oxen or Buffells.
1731. Medley, Kolben’s Cape G. Hope, II. 109. Buffles or Buffaloes are numerous in the Cape countries.
1738. G. Smith, Curious Relations, II. 384. After these came a buffle and a fine horse.
b. attrib. (cf. BUFF sb.2)
1577. Harrison, England, II. xvii. (1877), 292. Ships made of wicker and couered with buffle hides.
1611. Bk. Rates (Jam.). Belts called buffil belts, the dozen iiis.
1693. Urquhart, Rabelais, III. xxxvi. The death of a Buffle-ox.
1808. J. Barlow, Columb., V. 169. Lured o’er his lawns the buffle herds.
2. A fool; BUFFLEHEAD. [After F. buffle.]
1655. trans. Sorel’s Com. Hist. Francion, IV. 22. He said to the three buffles who stood with their hats in their hands, Tell me, you Waggs, [etc.].
1710. Pol. Ballads (1860), II. 90. To see the chief attorney such a buffle.
