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For other uses, see Buff.

Buff is a pale yellow-brown colour that got its name from the colour of buff leather.^[1]

[edit] Uses

Buff is widespread in the animal kingdom. The word buff appears in the name of many species with this colour, such as the Buff-breasted Sandpiper, the Buff Orpington chicken, Buff turkey and the Buff-bellied Pipit.

Formal or informal waistcoats are often buff-coloured for day wear, and the traditional colour for formal dress boot uppers is often described as buff.

The U.S. Army's Institute of Heraldry has included buff as a tincture (specifically as a metal) in some of its coats of arms. This is because buff is the traditional colour of the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps.

Buff has good camouflage qualities in the natural environment in dry climates where sand and soil are often buff-coloured. The American Continental Army wore buff and blue uniforms.

The funnels of the White Star Line, owner of the RMS Titanic, were buff with a black top.

Buff is one of the three colours of the Alpha Gamma Delta Women's Fraternity as well as one of the two colours of The Delta Chi Fraternity.

The colours of athletic team uniforms at The George Washington University and Gallaudet University in Washington, DC, Punahou School located in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Hamilton College in Clinton, NY are buff and blue. In the cases of George Washington University and Hamilton College (the latter named for US founding father Alexander Hamilton), the schools' colours were selected in recognition of the blue and buff colours of the Continental Army uniforms of the Revolutionary War (George Washington having been General of that army and Hamilton his Chief of Staff, and both having had a role in design of the uniforms). The Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association also use this colour for their Saint Patrick's Day jerseys.

A buff envelope is an envelope of this colour, used extensively in commercial mailings, and hence coming to mean any item containing commercial, rather than personal mail.

The colours of The George Washington University and Gallaudet University are buff and blue, modeled on the military uniform of General George Washington.

The flags of the United States states of Delaware and New Jersey include the colour buff.

The New York City volunteer firefighters wore buff uniforms. As a result, a "buff" came to mean someone who enthusiastically watched fires, then any enthusiast, often with a word specifying the subject, as "wine buff" (New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary).

^ Paterson, Ian (2003), A Dictionary of Colour (1st paperback ed.), London: Thorogood (published 2004), p. 73, ISBN 1854183753, OCLC 60411025