netop: a man's male friend or crony
Netop may qualify as the first American slang word. The early New England colonists adopted it from the Algonquians and at first used it only to refer to, or to greet, Native Americans. In his Key to the Indian Language, Roger Williams reports, "'What cheer, netop?' is the general salutation of all English towards the Indians." Eventually, however, the word evolved into a casual or facetious greeting between white men, popular well into the nineteenth century.