BUFFER

I. noun Etymology: origin unknown Date: 1749 fellow , man , II. noun Usage: often attributive Etymology: buff, verb, to react like a soft body when struck Date: 1835 any of various devices or pieces of material for reducing shock or damage due to contact, a means or device used as a cushion against the shock of fluctuations in business or financial activity, something that serves as a protective barrier: as, ~ state , a person who shields another especially from annoying routine matters, mediator 1, a substance capable in solution of neutralizing both acids and bases and thereby maintaining the original acidity or basicity of the solution, a temporary storage unit (as in a computer), ~ed adjective III. transitive verb (~ed; ~ing) Date: 1845 to lessen the shock of ; cushion , to treat (as a solution or its acidity) with a ~, to collect (as data) in a ~, IV. noun Date: 1854 one that buffs