The term buffalo is sometimes considered to be a misnomer for this animal, and could be confused with "true" buffalos, the Asian water buffalo and the African buffalo.
However, the name buffalo is listed in many dictionaries as an acceptable name for American buffalo or bison.
Samuel de Champlain applied the term buffalo (buffles in French) to the bison in 1616 (published 1619), after seeing skins and a drawing shown to him by members of the Nipissing First Nation, who said they travelled forty days (from east of Lake Huron) to trade with another nation who hunted the animals.
In English usage, the term buffalo dates to 1625 in North America, when the term was first recorded for the American mammal.
 It thus has a much longer history than the term bison, which was first recorded in 1774.
The American bison is very closely related to the European bison (also known as wisent or the European wood bison).

In Plains Indian languages in general, male and female buffaloes are distinguished, with each having a different designation rather than there being a single generic word covering both sexes.
Thus:
in Arapaho: bii (buffalo cow), henéécee (buffalo bull)
in Lakota: pté (buffalo cow), tȟatȟáŋka (buffalo bull)
Such a distinction is not a general feature of the language (for example, Arapaho possesses gender-neutral terms for other large mammals such as elk, mule deer, etc.),
and so presumably is due to the special significance of the buffalo in Plains Indian life and culture.
The term buffalo is sometimes considered to be a misnomer for this animal, and could be confused with "true" buffalos, the Asian water buffalo and the African buffalo. However, the name buffalo is listed in many dictionaries as an acceptable name for American buffalo or bison. Samuel de Champlain applied the term buffalo (buffles in French) to the bison in 1616 (published 1619), after seeing skins and a drawing shown to him by members of the Nipissing First Nation, who said they travelled forty days (from east of Lake Huron) to trade with another nation who hunted the animals. In English usage, the term buffalo dates to 1625 in North America, when the term was first recorded for the American mammal.  It thus has a much longer history than the term bison, which was first recorded in 1774. The American bison is very closely related to the European bison (also known as wisent or the European wood bison).
In Plains Indian languages in general, male and female buffaloes are distinguished, with each having a different designation rather than there being a single generic word covering both sexes. Thus:
in Arapaho: bii (buffalo cow), henéécee (buffalo bull)
in Lakota: pté (buffalo cow), tȟatȟáŋka (buffalo bull)
Such a distinction is not a general feature of the language (for example, Arapaho possesses gender-neutral terms for other large mammals such as elk, mule deer, etc.), and so presumably is due to the special significance of the buffalo in Plains Indian life and culture.
American bison