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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

buss.

A kiss.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/bʌs//bʊs/Northern-England

  1. A kiss.

    archaic
Where this word comes from

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.

verb/bʌs//bʊs/Northern-England

  1. To kiss (either literally or figuratively).

    dialectal · often · poetic · transitive

  2. To kiss.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

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.

noun/bʌs//bʊs/Northern-England

  1. A herring buss, a type of shallow-keeled Dutch fishing boat used especially for herring fishing.

Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Dutch buis.

noun/bʌs//bʊs/Northern-England

  1. A blunderbuss.

    archaic · slang
Where this word comes from

Clipping of blunderbuss.

verb/bʌs//bʊs/Northern-England

  1. To ejaculate; to eject semen or to squirt.

    intransitive · slang · vulgar
Where this word comes from

Alternative form of bust (coda-simplification).

noun/bʌs//bʊs/Northern-England

  1. Archaic form of bus (“passenger vehicle”).

    alt-of · archaic
noun/bʌs//bʊs/Northern-England

  1. Alternative form of bussing (“enjoyable, delicious”)

    alt-of · alternative · slang
Where this word comes from

Clipping of bussing.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.