Meaning of ローンボーイ


From the visual novel _Higurashi no Naku Koro ni_ ,

> 圭一  
>  「おいおいおいおい！ 本人不在で勝手に話を進めるなー！ 俺は孤独と静寂を愛するロンリーガイだぜー？」
>
> 魅音  
>  「あっはははははっは！！ だぁれがロンリーガイだー！」
>
> 魅音  
>  ローンボーイの間違いでしょー？ くっくっくっく！」
>
> レナ  
>  「はぅ～、ローンって圭一くん…。 お金に困ってるなら協力するよ…はぅ…。」

([Original screenshot](https://i.stack.imgur.com/3Spy4.jpg))

'ローンボーイ' in this conversation was translated as 'loan boy'. I tried googling
both the katakana and the translation, but the results seemed to be all over
the place. What is the meaning and implication of 'ローンボーイ'?




> What is the meaning and implication of 'ローンボーイ'?

We can all agree it's a **pun-ification** against the "lonely guy".

There, I just made up a word "pun-ification" which won't appear in search
results, but it's reasonable enough to convey the meaning. That's exactly what
Mion did. She stitched together two words to make fun of either:

  * Lone (as in lonely) + boy
  * Loan (as in borrowing) + boy

This is because lone and loan (or even lawn) can all be written as ローン just
because that's how katakana works.

In the end, Rena is clearly treating it as "loan". In that case, and in this
context, "loan boy" would mean "a boy who is broke and needs to take a loan".
Remember, it's a made up word after all.

If you've played the series, you might've noticed how smart Rena is. Their IQ
has been published officially and sure enough she is clever, while Mion is
average. Considering such character settings and how Higurashi is written, it
**may be** likely that this scene describes the following:

Mion simply changed "guy" to "boy", in order to say something like:

"Lonely guy? More like lonely **boy** "!

And then Rena added an extra twist:

" **Loan** -ly? Are you short on cash?"




> What is the meaning and implication of 'ローンボーイ'?

We can all agree it's a **pun-ification** against the "lonely guy".

There, I just made up a word "pun-ification" which won't appear in search
results, but it's reasonable enough to convey the meaning. That's exactly what
Mion did. She stitched together two words to make fun of either:

  * Lone (as in lonely) + boy
  * Loan (as in borrowing) + boy

This is because lone and loan (or even lawn) can all be written as ローン just
because that's how katakana works.

In the end, Rena is clearly treating it as "loan". In that case, and in this
context, "loan boy" would mean "a boy who is broke and needs to take a loan".
Remember, it's a made up word after all.

If you've played the series, you might've noticed how smart Rena is. Their IQ
has been published officially and sure enough she is clever, while Mion is
average. Considering such character settings and how Higurashi is written, it
**may be** likely that this scene describes the following:

Mion simply changed "guy" to "boy", in order to say something like:

"Lonely guy? More like lonely **boy** "!

And then Rena added an extra twist:

" **Loan** -ly? Are you short on cash?"

