A Buffer Absorbs Shock, Whether Physical or Digital
A buffer softens an impact. Railways, chemistry and computing all use the word for the same job in different materials.
A buffer is something that absorbs shock or separates two things in conflict. Three fields borrowed it independently: railway buffers absorb the impact between carriages, a chemical buffer resists changes in acidity, and a computing buffer holds data so a fast process and a slow one need not wait for each other. Same job, three materials.
- A shock absorber. *Railway buffers.*
- A person or thing that shields. *A buffer between them.*
- A temporary data store. *The video buffer.*
- To hold data temporarily. *The stream is buffering.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | buffer | A rubber buffer. |
| Plural | buffers | Hit the buffers. |
| Verb | buffer | It keeps buffering. |
| Compound | buffer zone | A buffer zone. |
| Chemistry | buffer solution | A pH buffer. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The plan hit the buffers.British: came to a stop.
- The video keeps buffering.Loading ahead of playback.
- A buffer solution resists pH change.Chemistry.
Buffers across fields
- Railways — sprung pads absorbing impact between carriages
- Chemistry — a solution resisting changes in pH
- Computing — a store smoothing between fast and slow processes
- Geography — a buffer zone separating two territories
- Ecology — a buffer strip protecting a watercourse from runoff
From an obsolete verb *buff*, to deaden a blow, of imitative origin. The computing sense dates from the 1940s.
Why does video buffer?
The player downloads ahead of what you are watching. When the connection cannot keep up, playback pauses while the store refills.
What does *hit the buffers* mean?
To come to an abrupt halt, from a train reaching the stop blocks at the end of a line.