buss
/bʌs/ noun, verb, proper noun
- noun (archaic) A kiss.
- verb (transitive, now often poetic or dialectal) To kiss (either literally or figuratively).
- verb (intransitive) To kiss.
- noun A herring buss, a type of shallow-keeled Dutch fishing boat used especially for herring fishing.
- noun (slang, archaic) A blunderbuss.
- verb (intransitive, vulgar, slang) To ejaculate; to eject semen or to squirt.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
Etymology
Uncertain. First attested in the 1560s. Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰus- (“lip, to kiss”) via Proto-Germanic *busaną (compare German bussen), but in any case imitative of kissing. Compare Welsh bus (“kiss, lip”) and Irish bus (“lips, mouth”) (both may have influenced English), Persian بوس (bus, “kiss”), Latvian buča (“kiss”), Latin basium (“kiss”).
Mainstream proposals like in The Free Dictionary have suggested it is a blend of old English dialect words bass (related to French baiser) and cuss (akin to kissen); perhaps compare puss.
Borrowed from Dutch buis.
Clipping of blunderbuss.
Alternative form of bust (coda-simplification).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A kiss; a rude or playful kiss; a smack. Shak.
- verb To kiss; esp. to kiss with a smack, or rudely. "Nor bussed the milking maid." Tennyson.
- noun A small strong vessel with two masts and two cabins; --used in the herring fishery.
Etymology [OE. basse, fr. L. basium; cf. G. bus (Luther), Prov. G. busserl, dim. of bus kiss, bussen to kiss, Sw. puss kiss, pussa to kiss, W. & Gael. bus lip, mouth.]
Etymology [Cf. OF. busse, Pr. bus, LL. bussa, busa, G. büse, D. buis.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “buss”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details