boi

boi

English: ‘boy’.

Like its twin, masta, the word boi is so deeply overloaded with the ideology and subservience of the colonial past that it is surpising that it finds any place at all on the lips of contemporary speakers. Nevertheless, deprecatives are always useful and a certain exclusivity is even retained in such items as haus boi.

New coinages coming into the language from English ‘boy’ (‘boys’, ‘boy friend’ etc) are listed under boy, boys to distinguish them.

See original Mihalic entry ® boy, doktaboi, kagoboi, sutboi.

Noun forms

Kind of person: a ‘native labourer’ or servant regardless of age
boi nating an ordinary man in the village, not a village official

Noun combination forms

Culture: haus boi (i) New Britain, New Ireland etc: a usually clan-owned men’s house, often off-limits to either all women or all women other than the clan sisters of the owners; (ii) elsewhere, an idiomatic reference to any kind of secret, initiation-related, or cult-house used by men.
ol man i kaikai pik long haus boi, ol meri i wokim liklik pati long haus the men are having a pig feast at the haus boi, the women are having a small party in the family house
ol manki i go insait long haus boi na lukim tamberan the initiates went into the cult house and were shown the bull-roarers

Intransitive verb forms

to work for, especially as a domestic servant
mi laik boi long yu I want to work for you (as a domestic)

Verb phrase forms

baim boi to recruit men for indentured labour contracts (at a time when recruiters were paid for supplying labourers)

pulim boi to kidnap or trick village boys and men into labour contracts, to engage in ‘blackbirding’