why do we call it "bussing" a table?

I'd guess it's from busboy which in turn is probably from omnibus boy 'somebody who has many tasks'.

1. Wouldn't "bussing a table" be kissing it?
2. What about that "bussing" and "busing"?
3. Isn't "omnibus boy" a colloquial rendition of "I'm the bus boy"? :0)

1/2. it seems not; both M-W and AHD go with busing for transporting by bus or removing dirty dishes, but both give bussing as a variant
(kissing is bussing only) ((Wordsmith's spell-check accepts only busing))

3. <groan>

-joe (abusing we will go) friday

Must be an American term. Never heard of it. What does it mean - what kind of table are you referring to? A dining table? A graph with a certain number of columns and rows in it? A schedule that tells you when the bus or train comes?

The boys are back in town!

The -boy part of busboy being objectionable to some persons, many employers have gone to using busser instead of busboy, I've noticed.

I think there's a movie industry position with boy in it, but I can't think of it right now.

This does refer to a dining table, Pook. "Busing" the table means removing the dirty dishes and wiping it down. At some fast food restaurants, they expect you to bus your own table, but some not, and some just take care of it if you don't. I think a portion of the tip usually goes to the bus persons. Fairly important, but thankless job, much like teaching.... :0)

The term is best boy. There are two flavors: grip and gaffer. They are assistants to the key grip (who moves stuff around on a film set) and gaffer (electrician).

hence, gaffer('s) tape.

Not to be confused with 'old gaffer' which means something else.

Thanks for filling in my ignorance. Here that is just done by the waiter and is called 'cleaning up' or 'clearing the table.'

hence, gaffer('s) tape.

Yes, but don't confuse gaffer's tape with duct tape. Gaffer's tape doesn't pull the paint off of walls. They usually come in different colors, too.

An interesting little idiomatic use of "of" there - I like idioms that involve prepositions, particles or other small words, they are so randomly, redundantly free radical. There is no logical reason for them to be there other than accustomed usage. In the sentence in question, "off walls" means the same thing. Or "from walls" would do as well. My favourite English idiom of this type is that you "chop a tree down and then you chop it up." Why not just chop it? Anyone have any other favourite examples?

prepositions

Yes, I love particles of all sorts. Those parts left over after the heroic task of dividing the lexicon up into lexical classes (or parts of speech) and usually consigned to the grammarian's ragbag. It's a murky part of grammar where verbal particles, prepositions, and adverbs start to swap functions and engage in little syntactic orgies.

Favorites of mine include: "That is nonsense up with which I shall not put." and "What did you bring that book that you know I don't like to be read to out of up for?"