buffin

Named for its resemblance to buff leather.

buffin (countable and uncountable, plural buffins)

1. (obsolete) A sort of coarse material, of unknown manufacture.

   buffin gowns

   • 1968 [1540], John Nevinson, transl., Raffella of Master Alexander Piccolomini: Or Rather, A Dialogue of the Fair Perfectioning of Ladies, translation of La Raffaella, ovvero, Dialogo della bella creanza delle donne by Alessandro Piccolomini, page 35:

     I will tell thee, albeit that I know thou wilt not understand me. One takes the finest true silver and quicksilver passed through buffin cloth, and when blended together they are ground for a day in the same direction with a little fine sugar.

   • 2013 September 27, Drea Leed, “William Wray, Haberdasher”, in Lizapalooza: Historic Costume Research, Recreation, and Ruminations‎^[1], archived from the original on 21 July 2014:

     The fabrics he bought–buffin, sackcloth, rash, jean fustian and milan fustian, durance–were modestly priced, affordable by the merchants and well-to-do yeomen of the town.

• “buffin”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.