homeboy

Etymology

It is formed from English home + boy.^[2][3][4] The OED takes the first part as the adjective home,^[2] Etymonline as the noun.^[3] The Dictionary of American Regional English compares the use of boy for someone native to a given place, and for a member of a group or gang of equals.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A boy who is fond of home or of staying at home: 1847, in W. E. Heygate's Godfrey Davenant.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives the same year for the sense "a boy or man from one's neighbourhood or hometown",^[6] which the OED records from 1861.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, a stay-at-home boy, appears in Ruskin's Præterita (1886) as home-boy.^[7][3] The sense "a man or youth from one's home town or region" is recorded from 1861 in the United States,^[2] and Green's Dictionary of Slang finds home-boys for the local members of a touring company in 1899;^[7] Etymonline dates it to the 1940s in African-American speech, when it could also suggest a simpleton.^[3] Green notes that the word began in the American South and was used by all races there before it moved with the Black population to the cities of the North.^[7] From 1864 a homeboy was also a boy raised in an orphanage or another charitable home, a mainly North American sense.^[2][3] Among urban Black and Hispanic youths the word came to mean a close friend or a member of one's gang (1965) and, as outsiders used it, a young man from the inner city (1967).^[2][6][8] The Oxford Dictionary of New Words describes how this use spread to white youngsters in the United States and Britain in the mid and late 1980s through rap and hip hop, and notes that it was also found among Black youngsters in South Africa;^[8][2] Collins likewise ties the modern word to rap.^[9] Variants and clippings include homegirl, home, homes and homey.^[8][7]

Timeline

• 1847 – a boy who is fond of home.^[2]
• 1861 – a man or youth from one's home town, region or neighbourhood.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates this sense to 1847,^[6] Etymonline to the 1940s.^[3]
• 1864 – a boy brought up in an orphanage or similar charitable home.^[2]
• 1965 – a member of one's group of close friends or one's gang.^[2]
• 1967 – a young man from the inner city, especially a gang member.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (slang, chiefly US) A boy or man from one's own neighbourhood, hometown or region, often used as a familiar form of address.^[6][9][2]
2. (slang) A close male friend.^[9][10]
3. (slang) A fellow member of a youth gang.^[6][2]
4. (slang) A young man from the inner city.^[6][2]

Related words

• homegirl
• homey
• home
• boy
• homebody

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
8. ^ a b c Knowles, Elizabeth; Elliott, Julia, eds. (1997), The Oxford Dictionary of New Words, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge