Excessive use of “Bro”
In the last 2 months I have heard more men use the word “bro” than in the past 15 years combined.
(For those of you who have not been called “bro”, basically this term is similar to “man” or “dude” or “chum” or “sport” or “buddy” or the British “old bean”.)
Now, the team of crack researchers at nathanweselake.com are not content to merely wonder why a term will suddenly emerge with this sort of frequency, we need to know why.
Here is what we know so far:
- “bro” has never been said by a man who was not a Christian; like “sanctification”, “frick”, and “you are such a blessing to me.” It appears that they will know we are Christian’s by our “bro’s”.
- “bro” is kind of unique among Christian slang in that it has no naughty equivalent inappropriate for a Christian to speak, it’s etymology is simply from the longer word “brother”. This makes it different from other terms popular in Christian sub-culture a topic google reveals has been masterfully taken up by someone calling himself mudpuppy and his slew of commentators.
- although “bro” is the shorter form of “brother”, I have yet to hear anyone say “O Bro!” as a shorter and way hipper form of “Oh Brother!” You’d think that might catch on. Although, take a second and say out loud “Oh Brother” - guarantee you both sound and feel more feminine than you did before. That was bad enough, now say “O Bro!” - I’m thinking it probably wont catch on.
- it has been my experience that the more hours one has spent in church in ones lifetime, the more frequent the use of “Bro” is. I am thinking of two “Bro’s” in particular right now who have had very different church experiences (one charismatic and one conservative) and yet both use the term often. Something about spending 8 plus hours a week attending church which leads to excessive use of “bro”. I also remember it being a term of choice here where I once spent a strange afternoon visiting a friend.
I end this post with a shout out to all my “bro” spewing buddies. Thank for the daily reminder that though we did not grow up in the same family we are “bro’s from different mo’s”.
Although now having wrote all this and put off preparing a plate of nachos way longer than I intended; it occurs to me I have heard the phrase “bro’s before ho’s” which of course is a friendly reminder to men to keep your relationships strong with your male friends even while engaged in courtship. Whatever the pros or cons of this phrase, it really is only relevant here in that it reveals my researchers are not so much crack researchers as they are full of shoot.
