▪ I. buddy, a. rare.
(ˈbʌdɪ)
[f. bud n.1 + -y1.]
a. Full of buds. b. Like a bud.
| 1598 Florio, Fronzuto, stalkie, buddie, spriggie. 1611 Cotgr., Fillole, a buddie knob in a vine, like a wart. 1862 Thackeray Round. Papers (1879) 115 Here are the scourges! choose me a nice, long, swishing, buddy one. 1871 G. Macdonald Roadside P. 209 Buddy dots of light. |
▪ II. buddy, n. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
(ˈbʌdɪ)
[Possibly an alteration of brother n. (cf. bud n.3) or a variant of butty.]
Brother; companion, friend; freq. as form a of address. So buddy-buddy n., a friend; also adj., friendly.
| 1850 ‘Barton Premium’ Eight Yrs. Brit. Guiana 218 Buddy (brother) how you can fink me sha' talk so to you? 1852 Whitmore Diary 25 Dec., Wrote to my folks and took a Christmas dinner with my buddy. 1858 Harper's Mag. Jan. 284/2 ‘Look, sister, see; the sky's got the measles!’ ‘No, buddy,’ said she,..‘it's only freckled.’ 1927 J. Barbican Confessions of Rum-Runner ii. 24 He had a buddy [f.n. Chum], and they went into a liquor deal together. 1932 N. Mitford Christmas Pudding iv. 51 Little Bobby Bobbin..is a great buddy of mine. 1937 Daily Express 17 Mar. 12/2 When I went into the night nursery to get the boys up I was greeted with a shout of ‘Stick 'em up, buddy’. 1952 M. Laski Village vi. 102 Those two are getting to be such buddies they can't bear to be parted. 1960 Woman 26 Mar. 12/3 He rather enjoyed Miss Hopkins's naïve assumption that now{ddd}he and she were buddies. 1962 L. Deighton Ipcress File xviii. 115 This way they stopper up the information without offence to old buddy buddies. 1962 K. Orvis Damned & Destroyed xxv. 184 Those two got real buddy-buddy. |
Hence as v. intr. (U.S. colloq.), to become friendly. Usu. with up.
| 1931 G. Irwin Amer. Tramp & Underworld Slang 38 ‘Me and Slim buddy up and take a trip’—Slim and I struck up a friendship and went for a trip together. 1948 N. Algren in Penguin New Writing XXXIV. 137 My cot was next to his, and we started buddying up. |
Add: 2. Special Comb. buddy system orig. U.S., a co-operative arrangement whereby individuals are paired or teamed up, assuming responsibility for each other's safety and well-being, as while swimming or engaging in other hazardous activity; also transf.
| 1931 Swimming & Water Safety (Boy Scouts of Amer.) (ed. 3) v. 102 With the *Buddy system the victim of such an accident would be immediately missed and probably recovered in time for prompt restorative measures. 1950 A. V. Mitchell Camp Counseling xv. 155 The Buddy System. Each camper chooses a companion of about his own ability, and the two stay constantly near each other, each being responsible for the other's safety. 1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 13 Jan. 41/7 This is a must for all safaris. If you take off into the wilderness carry a survival kit... Use the buddy system—two snowmobiles or more. 1971 New Society 1 July 22/3 Alcoholics Anonymous attribute much of their success to the ‘buddy system’. 1989 Combat & Survival Mag. Oct. 58/2, I passed the time watching one of our four-man patrols working the buddy system as they dived in and out of the shadows. |
Sense in Dict. becomes 1 a. Sense *2 in OED Additions Vol. 1 becomes 3 b. Restrict colloq. (orig. U.S.) to sense 1 a and add: [1.] b. A person who befriends and provides support for someone suffering from an incapacitating disease, esp. Aids.
| 1984 Esquire Dec. 272/2 The patients..are a wreck... We act as their buddies. 1986 Auckland Star 6 Feb. a8 Now, to add insult to injury, some of them are posing as ‘buddies’ and ‘counsellors’ to men in domestic violence situations. 1987 Observer 10 May 45/2 Buddies start off as strangers yet often end up as the people closest to their PWAs. 1989 Independent 21 Mar. 15/5 When one of the members crossed the Rubicon from HIV to Aids, Helpline always appointed two or three buddies to ‘see the person through’. 1991 Advocate 15 Jan. 33/1 Hearty congratulations and thanks are due to..the people delivering meals and working in ‘buddy’ programs. |
2. A person's assigned or chosen working companion, esp. in the operation of a buddy system.
| 1917 U. Sinclair King Coal i. 30 A man might sink to sleep as he lay at work, and if his ‘buddy’, or helper, happened to be out of sight, and to delay a minute too long, it would be all over with the man. 1978 A. P. Balder Sport Diving i. 4 Maintain contact with your buddy by sight and sound. 1990 Alert Diver May–June 17/2 The male, especially if he is a novice, may well delude himself that he is superior, and therefore knowledgeable about both his and his female buddy's problem—endangering both. |
3. a. attrib. and Comb. buddy film = *buddy movie below.
| 1977 Gay News 7–20 Apr. 30/1 Changing themes and trends (from the ‘Woman's Pictures’ of an earlier period to the ‘*Buddy Film’ of the present). 1989 Cineaste Sept. 48/3 The mechanics of the buddy film whir into gear—the familiar tango between the avuncular pragmatist and the callow idealist. |
buddy movie (also occas. buddy-buddy movie), a film in which camaraderie between two characters of the same sex (usu. men) is a central theme.
| 1978 Washington Post 26 Sept. c1/4 Weill denies that she was trying to make a female *buddy-buddy movie... The title, she says, refers to the many meanings of the term ‘girl friends’. 1980 Christian Science Monitor 2 Jan. 13/3 The ‘buddy movie’ fashion of the 1960s gave way to films with strong and central female characters. In some cases these were mere ‘female buddy’ pictures. 1989 Movie Winter 2/1 Corday proposed that she and Avedon write a role reversal buddy movie featuring two women. 1993 Mod. Rev. Aug.–Sept. 19/2 When he's trying to persuade Jack Slater to accept him as his partner he says, ‘Come on. I'm perfect buddy movie material’. |