buss

• IPA^(key): /bʌs/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Homophones: Buss, bus
• Rhymes: -ʌs

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.

buss (plural busses)

1. (archaic) A kiss.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter XIII, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VII:

     Here he gave Jones a hearty buss, shook him by the hand, and took his leave.

• (kiss): see Thesaurus:buss

buss (third-person singular simple present busses, present participle bussing, simple past and past participle bussed)

1. (transitive, now often poetic or dialectal) To kiss (either literally or figuratively).
   • c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:

     I will thinke thou smil'st, And busse thee as thy wife.

   • 1869, Richard Blackmore, Lorna Doone, page 1:

     'I take the privilege, Mistress Ruth, of saluting you.' ...And therewith I bussed her well.

   • 1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 189:

     As the repatriated explorer dodges down to buss the earth […] he is so thoroughly caught up in the rhapsody of the moment that he fails to take into account the traffic behind him.

   • 2007, Winter 61, Fiddlehead:

     Sam...really was six-ten and his head bussed the ceiling.

2. (intransitive) To kiss.
   • 2007, James Isaiah Gabbe, LaRue's Maneuvers, Chapter 10, LaRue, The Blue Light, p259-60:

     In the faint glow of a single blue bulb hanging from a clothesline they bussed and fondled.

• See also Thesaurus:kiss

From Dutch buis.

buss (plural busses)

1. A herring buss, a type of shallow-keeled Dutch fishing boat used especially for herring fishing.
   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 19, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     the Dutch whalers and herring busses

buss (plural busses)

1. Archaic form of bus (“passenger vehicle”).
   • 1838, Charles Dickens, "Omnibuses", Sketches by Boz

     We will back the machine in which we make our daily peregrination from the top of Oxford-street to the city, against any buss on the road, whether it be for the gaudiness of its exterior, the perfect simplicity of its interior, or the native coolness of its cad.

• SSBU, USBs, subs

Clipping of autobuss.

• IPA^(key): /ˈb̥usʲː/, [ˈb̥usʲː]
• Rhymes: -usʲː
• Hyphenation: buss

buss (genitive bussi, partitive bussi)

1. bus

• buss in Sõnaveeb (Eesti Keele Instituut)
• “buss”, in [EKSS] Eesti keele seletav sõnaraamat [Descriptive Dictionary of the Estonian Language] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2009

buss

1. accusative singular of bussur
2. genitive singular of bussur

buss m (1st declension)

1. (slang) bus (vehicle)

• autobuss

Either a direct shortening of Latin omnibus (“for all”), dative plural of omnis (“all”), or from English bus, itself a shortening of the Latin word.

buss m (definite singular bussen, indefinite plural busser, definite plural bussene)

1. bus (vehicle)

   Tar du buss til skolen?

   Do you get to school by bus? (literally: "do you take bus to the school?")

   Jeg gråter heller i en Mercedes enn på bussen, for å si det sånn. (Anne-Kat. Hærland)

   I'd rather cry in a Mercedes than on the bus, to put it that way.

• omnibus
• bil

Uncertain, perhaps akin to butt, "blunt, thick, rounded".

buss m (definite singular bussen, indefinite plural busser, definite plural bussene)

1. a quid of chewing tobacco

Rarely used.

• “buss” in The Ordnett Dictionary
• “buss” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “bus”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Either a direct shortening of Latin omnibus, "for all", dative plural of omnis, "all", or from English bus, itself a shortening of the Latin word.

• IPA^(key): /bʉsː/

buss m (definite singular bussen, indefinite plural bussar, definite plural bussane)

1. bus (vehicle)

   Tek du buss til skulen?

   Do you get to school by bus? (literally: "do you take bus to the school?")

   Ein buss er eit kjøretøy som er utforma for å frakte ei mengd passasjerar over ein distanse på veg eller gate. (Buss from Nynorsk edition of Wikipedia])

   A bus is a vehicle designed to transport a group of passengers for a distance along a road or a street.

• omnibus
• bil

Uncertain, perhaps akin to butt, "blunt, thick, rounded".

buss m (definite singular bussen, indefinite plural bussar, definite plural bussane)

1. a quid of chewing tobacco

Rarely used.

Perhaps from Low German or Dutch, compare boezem and its English cognate and equivalent bosom.

• bus

buss m (definite singular bussen, indefinite plural bussar, definite plural bussane)

1. The middel, curved part of a filled sail, fishing net or seine.

Very rarely used.

From Low German busse, "short case or ring of metal for lining of an axle, shaft or bolt".

buss m (definite singular bussen, indefinite plural bussar, definite plural bussane)

1. a hopper in a mill
2. an iron ring surrounding such a hopper

• “buss” in The Ordnett Dictionary
• “buss” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “bus”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

buss

1. bush

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

buss

1. bus

• IPA^(key): /bɵs/

• audio

  (file)

buss (not comparable)

1. (dated) like an old friend

   att vara buss med någon

   to be an old friend of someone

• bussig

buss

1. command to a dog to attack: get, bite, catch

   buss på tjuven!

   get the thief!

buss c

1. a bus, a vehicle to transport people.

   kommer inte bussen snart?

   doesn't the bus ever arrive?

2. (computing) a bus
3. an (old) soldier or sailor
4. a portion of chewing tobacco

   han spottade ut bussen som han hade tuggat på

   he spat out the tobacco he'd been chewing

• buss in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)

• subs