Okay, maybe this shows that I’m getting older, but what the hell does “boo” mean?
As in the song “Dilemma” by Nelly:
I chose this song, because it was the only example I could readily find, however I hear it used in everyday language.
I believe it to mean “child”; as in “I have to pick up boo from daycare”.
So am I correct? I have to keep up with these terms due to communication needed in my job.
It means SO, actually.
Thought I’d elaborate a bit.
So in the song, she’s saying how even when she’s with her SO, she’s lusting after him. Hence her ‘dilemma’.
So could it be a general term for “Loved one”, rather than just a SO? That might explain the child reference I got from other places I have heard the expression.
Kids!
blow=> blew => boo (smoke, esp dope)
“me and you and a dog named boo,
travelling and a a-living off the land;
me and you and a dog name boo,
how I loved being a free man…”
I suppose you don’t know “toke” either…
the old guy will now shut up…
It’s always been a SO term in my experience. What are those child references?
And I have no idea what happyheathen’s talking about.
AudreyK- “Toke” means to take a drag off of a joint.
The child references come from two sets of people who came into my office. One kept yelling at her children “Come here Boo! Sit down Boo! Stop crying Boo!”. She used the term on all of her kids though, as if they all had the same name.
The second comes from a mother who’s little boy was being sent to the juvenile probation officer, and she said “Yeah, my boo might get into trouble…But look at him dance!”. She then proceeded to have the little guy start jumping & wiggling around, all the time yelling “Dance boo!..Dance!” (So what if the kid can’t spell his name…He can DANCE dammit! :rolleyes: )
Thus, I assumed it was a reference to “child”.
Spit - I think that you’d find those “Boo” references come from “Beautiful”. Thus is can mean SO (as in the OP) or child, depending on the situation.
(Speaking from personal experience here. I call my SO “Boo” and arrived at that from “Beautiful” without any outside influence. Actually, I’d expect it to be used more by mothers to their children, as it’s pretty soppy 
).
And here is some support. I don’t know how good this etymolgy site is, but they say:
I know what a toke is, silly. I was referring to his blow > blew > boo thing.
From http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:Pu4YCMk7c08C:www.ccsu.edu/afstudy/upd4-3.html+boo+“black+english”&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
I don’t vouch for this, just found it Googling around. I think it probably is correct.
I like it more than the idea that it morphed from “beau” or “beautiful.”
It may have taken on the meaning of SO recently(the last 10 or more years), but I think it was originally what my first quote said.
Just to be nitpicky, but “beau” generally means handsome in French, not beautiful. Belle is the feminine form of the word…