The word buffalo means "any of several ox like Old World mammals of the family Bovidae, such as the water buffalo and African buffalo." It is also used to refer to "the North American bison." Buffalo can also be a verb meaning "to intimidate; to deceive; hoodwink; to confuse; bewilder."
Buffalo originally comes from Greek, boubalos from bous, meaning cow. From there it went through Latin as bubalus, for antelope and buffalo, then Late Latin, bufalus. From there it came into the English language one of three possible ways, Italian bufalo, Portugese or Spanish bufalo.
Source: American Heritage Dictionary 4th Edition, Picture from http://www.northforktrolley.com/images/buffalo.jpg
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