buddy

Meanings

Noun

• A friend or casual acquaintance.
• A partner for a particular activity.

Verb

• To assign a buddy, or partner, to.

Adjective

• Resembling a bud.

Origin

• 1802, colloquial butty, also the form of an older dialect term meaning workmate, associated with coal mining. Itself believed derived from 1530 as booty fellow, a partner with whom one shares booty or loot. Alternatively, an alteration of brother.
• From Middle English buddy, buddi, equivalent to bud + -y.