buffet

The 'meal on a table' sense traces back through Middle English buffet ('stool') and Middle French buffet ('side table') to Old French buffet, whose ultimate origin is unknown. A separate, unrelated sense — meaning a blow or punch — comes from Old French buffet, a diminutive of buffe.

The furniture sense shifted from naming a small stool to naming the side table where food was laid out, and eventually to the meal itself. Its modern pronunciation was reshaped to match French, giving it that borrowed, elegant sound in English.

The 'blow' sense of buffet gave rise to the verb buffeted, meaning to be struck or knocked about, and is connected to English buffer and buffoon.