different between cuff vs kuff

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?f/
• Rhymes: -?f

Etymology 1

From Middle English cuffe, coffe (“glove, mitten”), of obscure origin. Perhaps from Old English cuffie (“hood, cap”), from Medieval Latin cofia, cofea, cuffa, cuphia (“helmet, headdress, hood, cap”), from Frankish *kuf(f)ja (“headdress”), from Proto-West Germanic *kuffju, from Proto-Germanic *kupj? (“cap”). Cognate with Middle High German kupfe (“cap”).

Noun

cuff (plural cuffs)

1. (obsolete) glove; mitten
2. the end of a shirt sleeve that covers the wrist
3. the end of a pants leg, folded up
4. (informal, plural only) handcuffs

Derived terms

• shoot one's cuffs

Related terms

• cufflinks
• turnup
• off-the-cuff

Translations

Verb

cuff (third-person singular simple present cuffs, present participle cuffing, simple past and past participle cuffed)

1. (transitive) To furnish with cuffs.
2. (transitive) To handcuff.

Translations

Etymology 2

1520, “to hit”, apparently of North Germanic origin, from Norwegian kuffa (“to push, shove”) or Swedish kuffa (“to knock, thrust, strike”), from the Proto-Germanic base *skuf- (sku?), from Proto-Indo-European *skewb?-, see also Lithuanian skùbti (“to hurry”), Polish skuba? (“to pluck”), Albanian humb (“to lose”).

Germanic cognates include Low German kuffen (“to box the ears”), German kuffen (“to thrash”). More at scuff, shove, scuffle.

Verb

cuff (third-person singular simple present cuffs, present participle cuffing, simple past and past participle cuffed)

1. (transitive) To hit, as a reproach, particularly with the open palm to the head; to slap.
   • [They] with their quills did all the hurt they could, / And cuff'd the tender chickens from their food.

2. (intransitive) To fight; to scuffle; to box.

   • While the peers cuff to make the rabble sport.

3. To buffet.

   • cuffed by the gale

Translations

Noun

cuff (plural cuffs)

1. A blow, especially with the open hand; a box; a slap.
   • many a bitter kick and cuff

Etymology 3

Noun

cuff (plural cuffs)

1. (Scotland) The scruff of the neck.

English

Etymology

Shortened form of kuffar; from the Arabic ???????? (kuff?r), the plural form of ??????? (k?fir).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?f/

Noun

kuff (plural kuffs)

1. (derogatory, slang) A non-Muslim.
   • 2009, Ophelia Benson, Jeremy Stangroom, Does God Hate Women? (page 66)

     Given the clash of civilizations theory, Islamic views on kuffs, and recent tensions over the Pope's remarks in Regensburg, it is interesting to see how closely Islam and the Vatican echo each other on the question of women.

Translations