Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1941 (SND Vol. II).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
BUFFETS, Buffits, n.pl. “A swelling in the glands of the throat” (Ags. 1808 Jam.); “the mumps” (Ags.1, Fif.10 1936). Given also for Ayr. in E.D.D. [′bʌfɪts]Ags.10 1925:
Oor bairns are doon wi' the buffits.Gsw. 1922 H.S. in Glasgow Herald (25 July) 6:
I wonder how the members of the British Medical Association would look if an eighteenth-century Scots doctor were to reappear in their midst from the shades and ask them how modern skill treated such human ills as the nirles, the blabs, the branks (which he might explain were also known as the buffets).
