good people

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

good people (uncountable)

1. (slang) A good person.
   • 1993, David Wagner, Checkerboard Square: Culture and Resistance in a Homeless Community‎, →ISBN, page 143:

     "Oh no, I don't mean him," said Bert, "he's good people. He's on our side, not the system's."

   • 2021 Anne Boonchuy in Amphibia "If You Give a Frog a Cookie"

     Thanks, Terri. You're good people.

Noun

good people pl (plural only)

1. Synonym of good folk (“magical humanoid creatures”)
   • 1856, The Train, volumes 1-2, page 168:

     But when she desired an old riven oak to be cut down an oak in which the good people (fairies) loved to assemble — because it impeded some favourite view, the poor old woman almost went mad, […]

References

• Black Slang: A Dictionary of Afro-American Talk, by Clarence Major, 1971, →ISBN, as an example of the use of people to indicate a single person in African-American vernacular.