Buffer

For some reason I was thinking of the word buffer; a buffer prevents one thing else from hitting another thing, a buffer is between two other things… but a buffer can also been a silly person! To buff something can also mean to polish it, buffing ones shoes, for example, to make them shiny. Buffer comes from the word ‘buff’ meaning to make a dull sound when hit, and came originally from French.

However… a buffer can also be…

Someone or something that buffs.
In chemistry it is a solution which is used to stabilize the acidity (Ph) of a liquid.
In computing it is a part of the memory which stores data, “often before it is sent to an external device or as it is received from an external device”
A mechanical buffer maintains slack or separates different objects.
In telecommunications it is a routine or storage medium which is used “to compensate for a difference in rate of flow of data, or time of occurrence of events, when transferring data from one device to another”
On the railways it is a thing attached to the engine, carriages or wagons which cushions the impact between them and…
… also the barrier at the end of a line which stops trains from running off the end
It is also “an isolating circuit, often an amplifier, used to minimize the influence of a driven circuit on the driving circuit”
A buffer zone in political or international situations is a neutral zone or maybe even a state between two places which are having a bit of trouble with each other
Someone who polishes something – in the old days it might be someone working in a cutlery factory, a jewellers, glass daguerreotype plates …
…it can also be the tool a buffer uses to polish something, either a power tool, or something with a soft pad on the end or a wheel used to polish something
A silly buffer is a kindly description of someone who is foolish but in a nice way, sometimes applied to older people – originally it might have been someone who stammers
A buffer can also be a person who stands in front of someone else to protect or shield them
However, archaically a buffer can also be someone used to swear false oaths
… and a very horrid meaning, someone who kills horses for their hides
There also can be a buff-wheel, a buffer solution, a buffer head, buffing apparatus, keyboard buffer, phosphate buffer solution, print buffer, starting buffer and no doubt many more
… lastly it can be used figuratively to mean a gap which isolates or separates two things.