Homie

Homie (from "homeboy") is an English language slang term found in American urban culture, whose origins etymologists generally trace to Mexican-American Spanglish from the late 19th century, with the word "homeboy" meaning a male friend from back home. The words originated from the late 1930s/early 1940s and continuing up to the present. As slang terms, the words have come to have variations in meaning, depending on local subcultures in a region, without the stability provided for dictionary-defined words. The term has also been traced to military slang.

The late 19th century was a time when many Latinos were migrating to cities in larger numbers, and the word "homeboy" meant a male friend from back home. It was eventually shortened to "homie". The word is also a contraction of Mexican slang words "" or "homebuddies" which became prevalent among some of the youth in Latino and Chicano communities in the United States, starting in the late 1960s and continuing up to the present. Since the 1980s, the word has been particularly prevalent in hip hop subculture.

Some etymologists have said the term "home boy" may have had its origins in the Spanish word "hombre" which means "man".

Other sources state that "homeboy" originated during the Vietnam War era in the military, and referenced two soldiers being from the same hometown. Once it was discovered that two soldiers were from the same hometown, they would refer to each other as Homeboy, which was later shortened to Homie or Home.

In an early use of the term "homie", Ella Mae Morse, a white singer, in the original 1946 version of the song "House of Blue Lights" asks, "What's that homie?" to Freddie Slack, the writer of the song.

In 1992, the Latino rap hip hop group called A Lighter Shade of Brown released the recording "Homies" on their Hip Hop Locos album, which describes what a homie is in the Latino community. The status of "homie" is similar to "my best friend" or "someone I can trust", as in, "This is my homie Alex, we've known each other since grade school", or "I won't be around this afternoon, but you can give the money to my homie James, and he'll give it to me later."

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