HOMEBOY

noun Also written home boy or home-boy (Youth Culture) In young people's slang (especially in the US): a friend or peer, a member of one's own gang or set; hence (in the usage of adult outsiders) a street kid, a member of a teenage gang. Etymology: This is an example of the spread of common Black English expressions into White vocabulary, largely through the medium of rap (see also bad, def, diss, fresh, and rare). In Black English (especially among youngsters from the Deep South), homeboy was an established expression for 'a person from one's home town' and this was extended in Black college slang to anyone from one's own peer group or gang before being taken up by White youngsters as well, from rap lyrics and rap talk generally. History and Usage: The original use of homeboy for a person from one's own home town dates back to at least the late sixties, but this does not seem to have been extended to members of a peer group or gang until the development of the street culture of the late seventies which gave rise to break-dancing and hip hop. Interestingly it is also attested among Black youngsters in South Africa. The spread of the hip-hop culture to White youngsters in the US and the UK during the mid and late eighties ensured that homeboy became one of the more prominent 'new' American words of the second half of the decade. The female equivalent is a homegirl; in slang use, homeboy or homegirl can be abbreviated and altered, to home or homes (and even Sherlock, after Sherlock Holmes), homeslice, etc. It's sprayed on walls...by some of the 30,000 'home boys', or gang members of the 400 gangs who roam, pretty much at will in LA county. Listener 16 June 1983, p. 14 Having restrained my homeboys we walked away with dignity, but the whole posse was quite visibly in tears. City Limits 9 Oct. 1986, p. 52 Just when all my homeboys is just kickin' it, like we all go somewhere. Spectator 28 May 1988, p. 11 Who cares about its symbolism, homeboy and homegirl has one, why can't I? Vindicator (Cleveland State University) 10-24 May 1989, p. 2 The perfect person to speak to their largely minority a udience would be...a hip homeboy whose insecurities about making it in an Anglo-dominated world match their own. LA Style Mar. 1990, p. 116