bluffer

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English bluff

Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.

Proto-Italic *-āzios

Latin -āriusnom.

Latin -āriusbor.

Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz

Proto-West Germanic *-ārī

Old English -ere

Middle English -ere

English -er

English bluffer

From bluff + -er.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈblʌfɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈblʌfə/
• Rhymes: -ʌfə(ɹ)

Noun

bluffer (plural bluffers)

1. one who bluffs

Translations

Translations

• Dutch: bluffer (nl) m
• French: bluffeur (fr) m
• Polish: blefiarz m
• Turkish: blöfçü (tr)

Adjective

bluffer

1. comparative form of bluff: more bluff

Anagrams

• buffler, rebluff

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English bluff.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blœ.fe/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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• Audio (Canada (Shawinigan)):

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• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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• Audio (France (Somain)):

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Verb

bluffer

1. to bluff
2. to surprise

Conjugation

Conjugation of bluffer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	bluffer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	bluffant /blœ.fɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		bluffé /blœ.fe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	bluffe /blœf/	bluffes /blœf/	bluffe /blœf/	bluffons /blœ.fɔ̃/	bluffez /blœ.fe/	bluffent /blœf/
	imperfect	bluffais /blœ.fɛ/	bluffais /blœ.fɛ/	bluffait /blœ.fɛ/	bluffions /blœ.fjɔ̃/	bluffiez /blœ.fje/	bluffaient /blœ.fɛ/
	past historic2	bluffai /blœ.fe/	bluffas /blœ.fa/	bluffa /blœ.fa/	bluffâmes /blœ.fam/	bluffâtes /blœ.fat/	bluffèrent /blœ.fɛʁ/
	future	blufferai /blœ.fʁe/	blufferas /blœ.fʁa/	bluffera /blœ.fʁa/	blufferons /blœ.fʁɔ̃/	blufferez /blœ.fʁe/	blufferont /blœ.fʁɔ̃/
	conditional	blufferais /blœ.fʁɛ/	blufferais /blœ.fʁɛ/	blufferait /blœ.fʁɛ/	blufferions /blœ.fə.ʁjɔ̃/	blufferiez /blœ.fə.ʁje/	blufferaient /blœ.fʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	bluffe /blœf/	bluffes /blœf/	bluffe /blœf/	bluffions /blœ.fjɔ̃/	bluffiez /blœ.fje/	bluffent /blœf/
	imperfect2	bluffasse /blœ.fas/	bluffasses /blœ.fas/	bluffât /blœ.fa/	bluffassions /blœ.fa.sjɔ̃/	bluffassiez /blœ.fa.sje/	bluffassent /blœ.fas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	bluffe /blœf/	—	bluffons /blœ.fɔ̃/	bluffez /blœ.fe/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• bluffeur

Further reading

• “bluffer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012