homeslice
Homeslice means a close friend, used to greet or talk about someone you like. It's old-fashioned, affectionate slang for a friend, and it isn't an insult.
By Cal Hewitt, Gen X · Researched from public sources ·
What it means
Homeslice means a close friend or someone familiar, used to greet a person directly or to talk about them, as in "how have you been, homeslice?" or "she's my homeslice." A UCLA slang survey records both patterns in real use, and neither has anything to do with food. The "slice" is the second half of an older "home-" compound, the same family as homeboy and homie. Pizza has nothing to do with it. On its own, homeslice is friendly. It carries the same energy as "my dude" or "my guy," so a guy who says it to someone he already teases or flirts with is probably continuing that. A guy who barely knows the person is more likely just being goofy with a retro word, performing a bit of old slang for the joke. The word itself doesn't tip the read toward romance; the relationship and everything said around it does. The datedness is part of the appeal. People who still say homeslice today are often aware of exactly how retro it sounds, using it for comic effect or nostalgia as much as sincerity. Delivery still matters: from someone close, it reads as warm teasing, and from a near-stranger performing "old slang" at you, it can land as forced or mocking instead.
See the quick definition in the homeslice dictionary entry.
How to use it
“what's up, homeslice?”
A greeting between people who already know each other, playful and friendly.
“she's my homeslice”
Describing a close friend to someone else, third person.
“lol ok homeslice”
Light teasing between friends, with the retro word doing the joke.
“thanks homeslice”
Casual thanks to someone familiar. No food or pizza involved.
Where it came from
Home slice belongs to a family of "home-" compounds that includes homeboy and home piece, which the Oxford English Dictionary labels originally prison slang and, in the broader sense, chiefly African American English. The earliest exact print use located is the Washington Post, August 3, 1984, glossed plainly as "Home slice, best friend." A related but not identical form, home piece, appears earlier, in a 1974 issue of Black Belt magazine, for someone from the speaker's own neighborhood.
A letter published in New York Magazine on February 11, 1985 claims that homeboy and its variants, including home slice, "were born in the early seventies on Rikers Island." That is one writer's contemporary attribution, short of independently confirmed proof, so it counts as a reported origin. No single coiner is documented anywhere in the record. The Online Etymology Dictionary similarly dates homeslice to the 1980s, one of several variants in the homeboy family alongside homebuddy.
By 1994 the word had reached the Chicago Tribune, and Jonathon Green's Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang dates the close-friend sense itself to 1984. No song, show or single event is credited with spreading it; the record simply shows it moving through national print across the 1980s and into the 1990s.
No single person is credited, the origin is commonly reported.
Where it's popular
General U.S. informal English, most visible in nostalgic or joking conversation among people who remember late-20th-century slang. It is not tied to one region.
Most sources describe it as generational, with no single app or platform attached.
How it caught on
- 1974The Oxford English Dictionary records the related form "home piece," in Black Belt magazine, for someone from the speaker's own neighborhood.
- August 3, 1984The earliest exact documented use of "home slice": the Washington Post, glossed as "Home slice, best friend," per the Oxford English Dictionary.
- February 11, 1985A letter in New York Magazine claims that homeboy and its variants, including home slice, "were born in the early seventies on Rikers Island."
- 1994The word appears in the Chicago Tribune, per Jonathon Green's Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang, which dates the close-friend sense to 1984.
- April 14, 2026A r/Millennials thread, "Why did we say homeslice?," gathers people describing it as a high-school-era habit now used for comic effect or nostalgia.
Common mix-ups
Home Slice Pizza is a real restaurant, with its name and pizza-slice branding registered as a U.S. trademark. A message about a menu, a location or ordering food is about the restaurant instead of the friend. Capitalization and food or business context are the tell.
Test yourself
Read the room: what does homeslice mean here?
0/21. A guy who barely knows you texts "hey homeslice" out of nowhere. What's the most likely read?
2. What does the "slice" in homeslice actually refer to?
Related slang
Questions people ask
What does it mean when a guy calls you homeslice?
It means he's treating you like a close friend, the same register as "my dude" or "my guy." The word itself isn't a flirting move; whether it feels flirty comes from the relationship and everything else in the message.
What is another word for homeslice?
Friend, buddy or pal covers it in plain English. Homie is the more common, less elaborate cousin in the same family; the Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang defines homeslice itself as "a close friend."
Is homeslice good?
Yes. Being called homeslice is a compliment of sorts: the Oxford English Dictionary's earliest citation, from 1984, glosses it plainly as "best friend." It's affectionate, the same family as buddy or pal.
Why do people say home skillet?
Home skillet is a sibling term from the same joking, dated family as homeslice, another kitchen-sounding stand-in for "buddy." The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang lists it alongside the close-friend sense of homeslice. Both are used today knowing exactly how retro they sound.
Is homeslice offensive?
No. Both the Oxford English Dictionary and a UCLA slang survey record it as a friendly address term. Delivery can still land badly if someone who isn't close uses it in a stiff or mocking way, but that's a delivery problem. The word itself is friendly.
Is it homeslice or home slice?
Both spellings are used for the same word, so pick whichever looks right. The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest exact citation, from 1984, spells it as two words, "home slice."
A related form, home piece, meaning someone from your own neighborhood, is documented in Black Belt magazine a full decade before the Washington Post's 1984 "home slice, best friend" citation.
- https://www.oed.com/dictionary/home_n1
- https://web.archive.org/web/20250420122348/https://linguistics.ucla.edu/general/WorkingPapers/Occasional_Papers24_Slang6.pdf
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Millennials/comments/1slpdso/why_did_we_say_homeslice/
- https://www.etymonline.com/word/homie
- https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-will-smith-say-in-the-theme-to-fresh-prince/782321
- https://thariqalfathih.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ulrlklwnrnekihejaojl-signature-13e671e7ce00256288168433c3e3892dc737b7bd85e3450f6bb8fe797ddcf76d-poli-141104171516-conversion-gate01-1.pdf
- https://trademarks.justia.com/792/77/homeslice-79277172.html
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