‘Jabroni’ is now in the dictionary, and it’s all thanks to The Rock

There’s something exciting about new words being added to the dictionary, and this week we have a brilliant new entry ripped straight from the world of professional wrestling. Yes, “jabroni” is now a recognized word, and I hope you will use it in all your future Scrabble games.

The Dictionary.com entry on jabroni really explains it all.

jabroni[ juh-broh-nee ]
noun

Slang. a stupid, foolish, or contemptible person; loser:

She always has a comeback to own the trolls and jabronis on Twitter.

Shut your mouth, you dumb jabroni!

If you watched wrestling during the late 1990s you heard The Rock call people “jabronis” on a regular basis, but its origin dates back further than that. The first person to use the word as part was The Iron Sheik, wrestling legend and one of the weirdest follows on Twitter you can possible have.

Sheik used the term first, and was part of his lexicon. To him a “jabroni” was a “jobber,” or “enhancement talent.” Essentially another wrestler whose job it was to be booked for a match and lose, in order to make a more popular wrestler look better. He used the word in fiercely private wrestling locker, and never introduced it to the world. This was part of maintaining “kayfabe,” or the artifice of reality that exists inside pro wrestling.

For years the word “jabroni” was an inside term, until The Rock popularized the phrase during WWE’s “Attitude Era.” His promos routinely calling other wrestlers, and wrestling figures “jabronis” as an insult to them, while quietly tipping his hat to The Iron Sheik.

Still the word is synonymous with The Rock. There is no way “jabroni” would be in the dictionary today without his tireless work to insult those around him on national TV. Naturally he was excited at the news.

Meanwhile The Iron Sheik is still just casually using the word, always in the weirdest ways possible.

Wrestling, as always, is very good and influential.