buddy

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See also: Buddy

English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /bʌd.i/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ʌdi

Etymology 1[edit]

1802, colloquial butty (companion), also the form of an older dialect term meaning workmate, associated with coal mining. Itself believed derived from 1530 as booty fellow, a partner with whom one shares booty or loot.[1] Alternatively, an alteration of brother.[2][3]

Noun[edit]

buddy (plural buddies)

  1. A friend or casual acquaintance.
    Synonyms: bud, mate; see also Thesaurus:friend
    They have been buddies since they were in school.
  2. A partner for a particular activity.
    Synonyms: companion, partner
    drinking buddies
  3. An informal and friendly address to a stranger; a friendly (or occasionally antagonistic) placeholder name for a person one does not know.
    Synonyms: mate, fellow
    Hey, buddy, I think you dropped this.

Pronoun[edit]

buddy

  1. (In Maritime English) A person far removed from the conversation.
    I found some earphones in the pocket, buddy must have been pissed.
    Buddy's loaded. 'Got like three houses.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

buddy (third-person singular simple present buddies, present participle buddying, simple past and past participle buddied)

  1. (transitive) To assign a buddy, or partner, to.
    • 2007, Philip Briggs & Danny Edmunds, Mozambique: The Bradt Travel Guide[1], →ISBN, page 86:
      If you are being formally buddied, have a good chat with your buddy and find out their interests -- these should more or less match your own.

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English buddy, buddi, equivalent to bud +‎ -y.

Adjective[edit]

buddy (comparative more buddy, superlative most buddy)

  1. Resembling a bud.
    • 1963, John Herbert Goddard, Chrysanthemum Growers' Treasury, page 18:
      Some of the dwarfer varieties are full of buddy growths in the early stages and these must be cut down and thrown away.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “buddy”, in Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved November 2008.
  2. ^ buddy”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ buddy”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.