bwoy

English

Noun

bwoy (plural bwoys)

1. (Jamaica) Pronunciation spelling of boy.
   • 1891, Charles Dudley Warner, Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 4‎^[1]:

     But eesterday he guided slow My downcast Jenny, vull o' woe, An' then my little maid in black, A-walken softly on her track; An' after he'd a-turn'd ageaen, To let me goo along the leaene, He had noo little bwoy to vill His last white eaerms, an' they stood still.

   • 1898, Eden Phillpotts, Children of the Mist‎^[2]:

     "Now, you bwoys, give awver runnin' 'bout like rabbits," cried out Mr. Chapple.

   • 1902, M.E. Francis (Mrs. Francis Blundell), North, South and Over the Sea‎^[3]:

     Lard ha' mercy me, ye could ha' knocked I down wi' a feather when Keeper told I--" "A-h-h-h, them bwoys o' Chaffey's has been poachin' again I d' 'low," interrupted Mrs. Haskell eagerly. […] And Susan, she did write back immediate an' say, 'My poor bwoy, there be a sad surprise in store for you.'

   • 1903, William Barnes, Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect‎^[4]:

     They went up leaene an hour agoo; An' at the green the young and wold Do stan' so thick as sheep in vwold: The men do laugh, the bwoys do shout,-- Come out you mwopen wench, come out, An' go wi' me, an' show at leaest Bright eyes an' smiles at Woodcom' feaest.

   • 1994 November 18, Rosalind Cummings, “Hip Hop Godfather”, in Chicago Reader‎^[5]:

     Then comes the Stones' "Miss You"; on cue, the crowd yells in unison, "What's da matter wich you bwoy!"

Anagrams

• BYOW

Jamaican Creole

Alternative forms

• boy, bwai, bway

Etymology

From English boy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbwaɪ/
• Hyphenation: bwoy

Noun

bwoy (plural bwoy dem, quantified bwoy)

1. boy, guy, man

   Nancy love di bwoy whole 'eap suh shi tief weh a night time fi go look fi 'im.

   Nancy loved the boy a lot, so she'd sneaked out at night to go see him.

   • 2011, Marcus Bethel, Scars and Stripes: The Lasting Impression‎^[6] (in English), →ISBN, page 95:

     Rasta one: Bwoy, no try dem kinda rhatid ting wid de I, Zeen? […]

     Rasta one: Boy, don't play any fucking games with me, you dig? […]

Derived terms

1. bad bwoy

Further reading

• bwoy – jamaicans.com Jamaican Patois dictionary