Entry · catalog no. 1017
bul
/ /
noun · Philadelphia ·
✓ Verified
1.
A guy, a dude — usually younger than the speaker or addressed familiarly. A "young bul" is a young man coming up.
“That bul from down the block nice with the ball, for real.”
Origin & Attribution
Philadelphia Black speech, most likely from "boy," in everyday use for generations. Famously unsettled in spelling — bul, boul, bol — a pure Philly shibboleth: how you spell it tells where you learned it.
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide / diaspora
Philadelphia ·
Spoken by
$BULThe Record · cultural traction
▲ 26 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
60/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
+ Cite a sourceBol? Bull! Why we can't agree how Philly spells slang, Philadelphia Inquirer — article · 2018
submitted
Also spelled
See also