# Puff
## German
### Pronunciation

* Audio:(file)
* IPA: [pʰʊf]

### Etymology 1

Onomatopoeic, analogous to English buff.

#### Alternative forms

* Buf, Buff

#### Noun

Puff m (strong, genitive Puffs or Puffes, plural Puffe or Püffe)
* (colloquial, now regional) thud, wham; light, harmless blow

##### Declension

$^1$Now rare, see notes.

##### Descendants

* → Hunsrik: Puff (“blast”)

### Etymology 2

Onomatopoeic from the sound of the dice shaker hitting the ground.

#### Noun

Puff n (strong, genitive Puffs or Puffes, no plural)
* (obsolete because hardly played) a kind of dice game, anterior to backgammon

##### Declension

$^1$Now rare, see notes.

### Etymology 3

From the dice game, from disguising idioms like „zum Puff gehen“ actually meaning going to a brothel.

#### Alternative forms

* P*ff (censored)

#### Noun

Puff m or n (strong, genitive Puffs or Puffes, plural Puffs)
* (colloquial) brothel, whorehouse, bordello
    Synonyms: Bordell, Freudenhaus, Hurenhaus

##### Declension

$^1$Now rare, see notes.

##### Descendants

* → French: pouf (“brothel”) (semantic loan)
* → Hunsrik: Puff (“brothel”)

### Etymology 4

From the sense “thud, wham” understood as a whoosh forming a bulge, and in the sense “cushion seat” semantic loan from French pouf, the “laundry basket” apparently not present in French but extended in German from the broad sense in French of any textile heap.

#### Alternative forms

* (bulge in drapery): Puffe

#### Noun

Puff m (strong, genitive Puffs or Puffes, plural Puffe)
* (archaic) puff, a bulge in drapery
    Synonym: Bausch
** 1930–1943, Robert Musil, chapter 45, in Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften [The Man Without Qualities], book 1, Hamburg: Rowohlt Verlag, published 1957:Aus der senkrechten Bügelfalte empor, schien Arnheims Leib in der Gotteseinsamkeit der Bergriesen dazustehn; durch die Welle des Tals mit ihm vereint, stand auf der anderen Seite einsamkeitsüberglänzt Diotima, in ihrem Kleid der damaligen Mode, das an den Oberarmen kleine Puffen bildete, über dem Magen den Busen in eine kunstvoll gefaltete Weite auflöste und unter der Kniekehle sich wieder an die Wade legte.(please add an English translation of this quotation)
* a kind of beanbag chair, a large cushion ball used as a seat, Sitzpuff
    Hypernym: Sitzsack
** 2016, Sarah Waters, translated by Ute Leibmann, Fremde Gäste: Roman, Köln: Bastei Lübbe, →ISBN, page 96:Du kannst dich auch aufn Puff setzen, so schmal wie du bist.(please add an English translation of this quotation)
* laundry basket, Wäschepuff

##### Declension

$^1$Now rare, see notes.

### Etymology 5

Borrowed from English puff, hence often italicized and written with minuscule in early occurrences, and probably also sharing the English pronunciation.

#### Noun

Puff m (strong, genitive Puffs or Puffes, plural Puffs)
* (genetics) a chromosome puff

##### Declension

$^1$Now rare, see notes.

### Further reading

* “Puff” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
* “Puff” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
* “Puff” in Duden online

## Hunsrik
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈpʰuf/
* Rhymes: -uf
* Syllabification: Puff

### Etymology 1

Borrowed from German Puff (“thud; wham”).

#### Noun

Puff m (plural Puff)
* blast; pop (loud, sudden sound)
    Synonym: Knall

### Etymology 2

Borrowed from German Puff (“brothel”).

#### Noun

Puff f (plural Puffe)
* brothel (house of prostitution)

### References

* Piter Kehoma Boll (2021) “Puff”, in Dicionário Hunsriqueano Riograndense–Português (in Portuguese), 3rd edition, Ivoti: Riograndenser Hunsrickisch, page 127, column 2