bub

   In colloquial American usage ‘bub’ is usually addressed to a strange man, usually by another man. It is slightly insulting or aggressive. ‘What are you bub, crazy or something?’ says a man to another in The Ginger Man, by J.P.Donleavy. The term appears to be a short form of ‘bubba’, itself an illiterate transformation of ‘brother’. Further examples of usage occur in, e.g., The Philanderer, by Stanley Kauffmann, where an American wife uses it to her husband, and Gone With The Wind, by Margaret Mitchell. In the latter novel a sergeant addresses one of his men by this term. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, the watchman of a ferry-boat says to Huck: ‘Hello, what’s up? Don’t cry, bub. What’s the trouble?’