# Slang Term: Boo **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 20, 2002, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-term-boo/133086 "2002-10-20T08:28:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/76d3ee/32.png) [@Spit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spit)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2002, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-term-boo/133086/1 "2002-10-20T08:28:33Z")
Okay, maybe this shows that I’m getting older, but what the hell does “boo” mean? As in the song “Dilemma” by **Nelly** : > [@](#): > > No matter what I do > All I think about is you > **Even when I’m with my Boo** > Boy, you know I’m crazy over you 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. ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2002, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-term-boo/133086/2 "2002-10-20T09:18:56Z")
It means SO, actually. ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2002, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-term-boo/133086/3 "2002-10-20T09:20:31Z")
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’. ---
**Author:** ![Spit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/76d3ee/32.png) [@Spit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spit)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2002, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-term-boo/133086/4 "2002-10-20T09:29:23Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2002, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-term-boo/133086/5 "2002-10-20T09:36:22Z")
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… ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2002, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-term-boo/133086/6 "2002-10-20T09:48:59Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Spit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/76d3ee/32.png) [@Spit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spit)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2002, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-term-boo/133086/7 "2002-10-20T10:24:24Z")
**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”. ---
**Author:** ![Bromley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@Bromley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bromley)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2002, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-term-boo/133086/8 "2002-10-20T12:05:18Z")
**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 😃 ). ---
**Author:** ![Bromley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@Bromley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bromley)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2002, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-term-boo/133086/9 "2002-10-20T12:12:31Z")
And here is some support. I don’t know how good [this](http://www.panikon.com/phurba/alteng/b.html) etymolgy site is, but they say: > [@](#): > > **Boo** - “Beau.” [DV] A Black Vernacular version of “beau,” (From the French “beau” = “beautiful.”) extended to mean not only a significant other, but sometimes any close aquaintance, usually of the opposite sex. For example: “Puffy and his star studded boo, Jenifer Lopez…” ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2002, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-term-boo/133086/10 "2002-10-20T12:22:48Z")
I know what a toke is, silly. 😃 I was referring to his blow \> blew \> boo thing. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2002, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-term-boo/133086/11 "2002-10-20T14:07:15Z")
> [@](#): > > “Boo” appears in Wolof as the temporal relative pronoun second person “you.” For example, “Boo ligg‚‚y bee,” “When/if you (singular) work.” African Americans use “Boo” as a nickname for a boy or girl. 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](http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:Pu4YCMk7c08C:www.ccsu.edu/afstudy/upd4-3.html+boo+%22black+english%22&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. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2002, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-term-boo/133086/12 "2002-10-20T14:46:28Z")
Just to be nitpicky, but “beau” generally means handsome in French, not beautiful. Belle is the feminine form of the word…