[Ads-l] broheem

[Ben Zimmer]

You can hear William Hurt address Viggo Mortensen as "broheem" (or
something like that) twice in this clip from "A History of Violence"
-- once about 1 minute in, and again about 3 minutes in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbJGJIOqnwE

On Sun, Feb 7, 2016 at 4:40 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>
> 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
>
> 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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