English

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Etymology

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Possibly from playful mid-word substitution of "boy" in "old boy"

Pronunciation

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Noun

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old bean (plural old beans)

  1. (British, slang, dated, sometimes as a term of address) An old friend; an old chap or fellow.
    • 1876, The Atlantic Monthly, volume 37, page 238:
      [] it is really an uncommon piece of exaggerative imagination which we find in the description of this old bean's elaborate costume, with its pads, straps, strings []
    • 1905, H. G. Wells, Kipps, vi. §4:
      When this here old Bean told me, you could have knocked me down with a feather.

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