An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/puffen
puffen, verb, ‘to puff, buffet, cuff,’ Modern High German only, properly a Low German word; compare Dutch pof, ‘thrust, blow, credit’ (whence Modern High German Puff in the sense of ‘credit’), probably allied also to bobbien, buffen, ‘to strike,’ English buffet, substantive and verb; puff (hence the meaning of Puff, ‘puffing of a sleeve’), and to puff (Anglo-Saxon pyffan). “The close proximity of the meanings ‘to blow’ (inflate) and ‘to strike’ is not unusual; French souffer and soufflet furnish a ready example; the Romance languages have the same stem,” though it is not necessary to assume that one was borrowed from the other; the stem buf may have originated independently as an imitative form in both groups. Compare Italian buffo, ‘blast of wind,’ buffettare, ‘to snort,’ Spanish bofetada, ‘box on the ear.’