More for the "bro-" files: "brony"

[Ben Zimmer]

On Sun, Jan 8, 2012 at 7:43 PM, Ben Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
> There was some discussion of "brony" on Language Log, since it was a
> nominee in the WOTY voting (ultimately winning in the Most Unnecessary
> category). This comment is of interest, since it turns out a "brony"
> *is* a kind of "pony", in the relevant subculture:

Correction: "brony" won for Least Likely to Succeed, not Most Unnecessary.

> ---
> http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3685#comment-161432
> [Greg D:] I'm pretty sure "pony" is the head of "brony". In the My
> Little Pony universe, the characters say things like "everypony" and
> "anypony" and "nopony" instead of the standard English equivalents,
> and bronies (such as myself) when speaking with each other about the
> show will often do the same thing. On various blogs and podcasts
> dedicated to the fandom, the audience will often be addressed
> something like "all the ponies out there reading/listening".
> "Brony" means "pony who is a bro"–and that, as well as I understand
> it, is actually what bronies mean to say when they use it.
> ---

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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