My (ex)brother in law used to talk about a “buddy” that had something, or a “buddy” that knew someone.
I have a “friend” (or friends) that I like being around, that also know things ,and I like being around.
I have “pal and a confidant” as per Andrew Gold’s song, a friend.
I don’t like to use phrases like “Yeah, I got a buddy that…”
Can someone qualify differences for me, plz? Thx
I doubt that there are quantitative, consistent differences in how people use those various terms to refer to friends. “Buddy” seems, to me, to suggest a good/close friend, but YMMV.
FWIW, I use the term “friend” regularly, but rarely use “buddy,” and never use “pal.”
“Buddy” is a euphemism for “don’t ask me how I know or how something will get done. Just trust me.”
No idea, mate.
A buddy is the person you call when you need help showering after flesh eating viruses are chomping places on your body your Momma don’t need to see.
A friend, you go to lunch with, exchange birthday cards, use as a personal reference.
A confidante is your attorney. (If you want nothing ever, ever revealed). Don’t assume your BFF won’t give up your secrets with surprisingly little encouragement.
A buddy will help you bury a body.
One of my dogs is my buddy. The other’s too batshit crazy to care!
I’m not your mate, pal.
Never. . .ever. . .call me “pal”. . .
Don’t ever call a stranger “bud” unless you want your teeth rearranged.
So with “buddy”, “bud”, and “pal” ruled out, and “mate” ruled out on this side of the pond, it seems that “friend” is all we have left. “Confidante” sounds like something that should only be applied to an old lady on the receiving end of some juicy gossip being relayed over the phone by another old lady. In a television sitcom, this conversation would be relayed over a party line and overheard by a third party.
In the Shenandoah Valley, people use buddy the way others might use the word dude. The guy at the hardware store might say “ you need help loading that mulch in your truck, buddy?” Or someone might say “your tailight is out buddy.”
So what I’m getting from this thread is that if a stranger calls you ‘buddy’ it could be friendly, aggressive or neutral. It just depends on context.
But if a stranger hits you with a ‘hey chief’, I think we can all agree that that’s never good.
I visit my family in Winchester, Virginia frequently and will often be addressed transactionally as “Darlin’”.
Or, sweetheart, hon and a surprising one; a nurse practitioner once called me “Sis”, like “Sis, can you comfortably turn to the left?”
Ok bro.
“Pal” seems like such a quintessentially American word, so it was surprising to me to learn that it has a rather exotic origin: it derives from a Romani word, which ultimately derives from Sanskrit. It was first used in English in the eighteenth century, in England, not America.
Thanks, pardner.
Chum, soul mate, comrade, crony, sidekick, compeer, bro, cuz, roomie, dude, chap, fellow, guy, lad, homie, kid.
Thanks, thesaurus.com. English is an amazing language.
What’s the difference between all these? Whatever’s in your head. That’s also part of English being an amazing language.
I use buddy regularly. For me it is a real friend, as opposed to that guy I sometimes talk to at work that I like OK. He’s just a friend.