old bean meaning (dated): definition, etymology and quotations

old bean

noun

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

UK, Dated, Slang, Sometimes, Term of address An old friend; an old chap or fellow.

[…] 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 […]1876, The Atlantic Monthly, volume 37, page 238:
When this here old Bean told me, you could have knocked me down with a feather.1905, H. G. Wells, Kipps, vi. §4: