good old boy
10
9.1
- noun
- /ɡʊd oʊld bɔɪ/
- Slur
:
[Ofensivo: hombre blanco sureño, conservador y partidario del amiguismo]
- Jim's a good old boy, he's a friend of mine.
- good old boy network
- good old boys were drinking whiskey
- good old boy system
There's like, they're real good old boys over there in that golf community.
- There's like, they're real good old boys over there in that golf community.
- Most of the guys there were from Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, just good old boys, a bunch of farm boys and stuff.
- And that aggression ran into the good old boy South.
- That man, he used to vape hard, and now he's a good old boy.
- You know, you got a lot of good old boys and, and, and a lot of black community or African American.
Examples
-
Most of the guys there were from Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, just good old boys, a bunch of farm boys and stuff.
-
Billy was a good old boy.
-
Yeah, he must have been a pretty good old boy.
-
Ahead, two other good old boys talk as they walk.
Fiction book (1990) -
What a good old boy you are.
Fiction book (1995) -
Just a conservative good old boy.
Fiction book (1997) -
Could be a bunch of good old boys on a night out with their wives.
Fiction book (1999) -
He was a good old boy.
-
But he's a good old boy.
-
The meeting was filled with good old boys who did not welcome new ideas.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components 'good' + 'old' + 'boy' yield an affectionate, familiar sense that would let a learner infer 'a friendly or well-known man,' so part of the meaning is compositionally accessible. However, the phrase carries culturally specific connotations (Southern US identity, networked loyalty, and conservative/intolerant social attitudes) that are not predictable from the words alone, making the expression only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Good old boy began in the American South as a friendly name for a man people had known a long time, literally a good, old, boy meaning a 'trusted' local friend. One popular story says it came to describe men who always help one another and keep power in their towns, so today good old boy often means a man who is 'loyal' to his group and does not like change.