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boy

BOY, often written 'bai' or 'buoy'noun, interjectionRegionalCork

A Hiberno-English slang term. Browse all Irish slang.

What it means

  1. A tag attached to the end of an utterance in Cork and much of Munster, addressed to any male of any age. It marks familiarity and carries no sense of youth.

In use

  • How's it going, boy?

    Note: Said to a seventy-year-old as readily as to a teenager.

  • 'Tis a fine day, boy.

Where it comes from

English 'boy' as a vocative, reinforced by the Irish vocative 'a bhuachaill'. Whether the Irish form caused the Cork habit or merely matched it is unsettled, but the frequency and the stripped-out age meaning are distinctly Munster.

Other forms

Spellings and variants:
bai, buoy