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blud

BLUD/blʌd/

Pluralbluds

3 meanings of blud

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  1. 1
    noundialectalMulticultural London EnglishUKcountable
    A casual, friendly term used to address a man, common in British slang.

    Similar to greeting someone as 'mate' or 'bro'.

    Easy now, blud, no need to start a fight over it.

    You good, blud? Haven't seen you around in ages.

    Similarbruv, bro, fam, mate

    Note

    A word born in Multicultural London English from a Caribbean Creole use of blood for a relative or close friend, the same idea as blood brother, and perhaps reinforced by brother. It is a vocative, so it sits at the edge of a sentence, often after yeah, as in a Stormzy line about his shows selling out. Gautam Malkani's Londonstani (2006) already has it. It has since spread online, but it remains slang for casual talk among friends.

  2. 2
    pronoundialectalhumorousironicMulticultural London EnglishUKmasculine
    A humorous, ironic way of referring to a man as 'he' or 'him'.

    Blud walked straight past without even saying hello.

    Everyone laughed when blud tripped over the step.

    Note

    Here the term of address becomes a pronoun. Blud stands bare, with no article, wherever he or him would: as subject in "blud was lost," as object in "who invited blud." The tone is teasing or ironic, usually aimed at someone whose behavior invites a laugh, and it is at home in online posts. The joke borrows the warmth of the friendly term of address and turns it on someone who isn't being addressed at all.

  3. 3
    nounobsoleteuncountable
    Obsolete spelling of blood.
    The yronmongers find a Carayge good how Iesu dyed on yͤ Rode and shed for vs his precyus blud the find it in fere
    1539, Late Banns BL Harl 2150, The Records of Early English Drama
    Note

    Older English sometimes wrote blood with a single u. The Cheshire Late Banns of 1539–1540 speak of Jesus shedding "his precyus blud," and the spelling carried the ordinary senses of blood, from the vital liquid to family kinship. The same letters reappear in the London slang address, but that is a modern eye-dialect respelling of Caribbean Creole blood, not a survival of this old form.

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Origin

The word was created in Multicultural London English and is of Jamaican origin, later spreading across England and the wider Anglosphere and online. It is claimed to come, via eye dialect spelling, from Caribbean Creole "blood" (a family relation or close friend; compare "blood brother"), and it may also derive from or be reinforced by "brother" (compare "bro," "bruh," "brudder").