So here's where it gets a little tricky: The verb "bus," in the sense of "clear a table," is a back-formation taken from "busboy," and the "bus" in "busboy" possibly derives from "omnibus," meaning "for everyone," because a busboy does all sorts of odd jobs for everyone else on staff. POSSIBLY.
Let's not forget the amorous profession of "bussboy".
As a former busboy- your definition tracks with my experience working in a deli many years ago. I don’t care how you spell it. Not everyone could handle it.
Busboy because they transport things to different points in the restaurant making frequent stops
And, yes, the bus you ride in is also an omnibus, because it's for everyone. We can talk about taximeter cabriolets, aka taxicabs, some other time.
“And saying ‘Good evening,’ he pushed open the heavy doors of that palace of pleasures. The golden gates closed behind him, and he went at a brisk walk through the damp, dark streets in search of a penny omnibus.”
You are going to tie it to taxidermy aren’t you?
"Hey, cabrioleteer!" the cry echoes in the canyons of Manhattan
In any event, you could go with either "he bussed the table"/"he is bussing the table" or "he bused the table"/"he is busing the table" and you'll be fine. (I'd go with the single-s version.)
as a former busboy but lifelong grammarian, I will be adopting your preferred version starting now; thank you for your service
Plural for the electrical kind? I’d look it up but then we wouldn’t have the pleasure of your answer for the readers.
I am constantly tripped up by words like “focusing/focussing” and “traveling/travelling”. I got my schooling in Ireland, and they favored those doubled letters. 😏 I would go with bussed/bussing, just from cultural habit. 😁
The Irish and the Brits can get away with travelling, travelled, marvellous, and the like, because that's how you like to spell those things. No one on either side of the water, except The New Yorker magazine, favors focussing and focussed.
My Irish English teacher *may* have been a bit prone to learning a general rule and then applying it liberally. 😏
(Though apparently I'd be in a microminority; I'm OK with that.)
Or possibly it comes from the fact that busboys wheel four-wheel carts around the restaurant while they're doing the scutwork. I dunno.
My late husband was my busboy when we were very young and working in foodservice. This word has always been a mystery to me.
Can’t see ‘busing’ as not rhyming with ‘abusing’.
Yeah, or just saying “abusing” with a terrifyingly folksy vibe.
Wow,that's straight bussin'!
I was specifically looking for this comment
Ben knew what he was getting into when the dark pact of our mutualdom was forged
Would a boy who kiss everyone be a bussboy, buss-boy, or buss boy?
Omnibussboy