Daily Rant: The hell is a "homegirl"?

OK so the other night, my BFF and I happened upon the fact that more and more often we are hearing the term "homegirl" and we asked each other "what does that mean". Thus began our journey. Mind you, this was us on the phone at 11 o'clock at night having this conversation.

We said "let's call and ask some of our (what we thought was unbiased) male friends". The first phone call went like this...*disclaimer* names have been changed to protect the identity of the weak and scared to answer the question men. Hey John...Missy and I wondered what the hell a homegirl is. I mean we've heard "my homegirl is coming in town for the weekend" or "naw that was my homegirl on the phone" so we wanted to know exactly what the hell a "homegirl" is. His response...oh naw lol I can't answer that. We're like...what??? what do you mean you can't answer? Naw LOL I have to stick to the "man code" "y'all not putting me in the trick bag" Are you serious John? "Yea man...I can't do that. Homegirl has lots of meanings but I can't do that and I thought something was wrong when y'all called me so I need to get back to this conference call (11:30pm).

Next call...Hey Jim...Missy and I were having a conversation and we were wondering "what the hell is a homegirl". *uncontrollable laughter* we're like what? Why are y'all on the phone at 12 o'clock calling people with this stuff? Because, we want to know and we figured you would tell us. Alright listen...homegirl can mean lots of things it depends. If a dude tells you a homegirl is coming in town for the weekend, she's not a homegirl. Homegirls don't require a weekend. You pick them up from the airport, drop them off maybe get something to eat that's it. If you're seeing a homegirl the entire weekend...sex is involved. Hmmm...interesting I said. So how about if you're in the bedroom and he goes in the bathroom and holds a conversation. When you ask about it, he says that it was a homegirl. His reply...was it the upstairs bathroom or downstairs? Cause if he went downstairs its not a homegirl, upstairs anywhere within ear shot it could potentially just be a homegirl. Homegirl is a real general term. I personally call my good girlfriends my sisters or say "this is my friend since elementary school". Homegirl is for chics stuck in the middle of the sex or no sex debate.

We ended up being on the phone with him for like an hour before we were all sleepy as hell. But I'm still not convinced. I posted the question on facebook but what do you guys think? Women do we have a "homegirl" term? I couldn't think of one. Maybe its because we're slicker than they are with it and know how not to bring doubt into a conversation. You tell me. Any thoughts on the subject?