noun General Slang

Good buddy

· noun · trucker

Old-school CB term for a fellow trucker — but the meaning flipped.

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Definitions

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Originally the friendliest word on the CB. In the 70s boom, 'good buddy' meant a fellow CBer, a pal on the channel, someone you'd shoot the breeze with at 3am on I-80. Films and pop songs turned it into the cliché trucker greeting everyone recognised.

“Thanks for the heads up about that bear, good buddy.”
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Then it flipped. By the 80s and 90s in actual trucker slang, 'good buddy' had curdled into a slur — used to imply someone was gay. So real drivers stopped saying it, and 'good neighbour' took over as the friendly version. The civilian world never got the memo, which is why outsiders still throw 'good buddy' around thinking it's warm.

“Don't call a trucker good buddy unless you mean it the bad way — say good neighbour instead.”
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Good buddy In A Sentence

Thanks for the heads up about that bear, good buddy.
Don't call a trucker good buddy unless you mean it the bad way — say good neighbour instead.

Origin & Usage

Popularised during the 1970s CB radio craze. The pejorative shift is documented from the 1980s onward, after the term became overused by non-truckers and the in-group adopted 'good neighbor' instead.

Variants good neighborgood neighbour
Tags #trucker#cb-radio#1970s#slur

People Also Ask

Is 'good buddy' offensive to truckers?

Among actual long-haul drivers, yes — it's been used as a homophobic dig since at least the 1980s. Civilians using it as a friendly greeting usually have no idea.

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