[Ads-l] broheem

Ben Zimmer bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM
Sun Feb 7 21:40:21 UTC 2016


Back in 2005, Sam Clements linked to a discussion about
"broheem"/"broheim" on the Straight Dope Message Board.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=342217
via
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2005-October/054971.html

Nothing definitive there, but it does point to the 2005 film "A
History of Violence" as an important propagator. Grant Barrett also
noted the film's use of the word in his Double-Tongued entry from June
9, 2006, but he tied it to earlier usage of "broham"/"brougham" (back
to 1991):

https://web.archive.org/web/20060612213103/http://doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/broheim

--bgz


On Sun, Feb 7, 2016 at 3:34 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> OK, a current commercial shows that Geico makes you frighteningly big and
> strong, unlike wimpy, other-guy insurance.
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AFZQOfj7nw
>
> The relevant gimmick, however, is that the weight-lifter dudes keep
> addressing each other with bad puns on the word "bro," e.g. "brotato chip"
> and "Teddy Brosevelt."
>
> No prob, natch. But the very first "bro" item sounds like "broheem," which
> mystifies me.
>
> Tons o' Googlits, few answers. ("Ibahim" is a popular guess, but, really?)
>
> UrbanD has it from 2004 ("broheim," 2006) and even "Broheemavich" from 2007.
>
> WTH?
>

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