The Definition of “Broski”

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Slang terms can be confusing, especially for the uninitiated of us.

They spike in popularity for a time, during which they baffle us, leaving us scratching our heads and wondering how a word like “bae” or an expression like “On fleek” ever made it into the English lexicon.

And, to make matters worse, slang words disappear off the face of the earth before we know it, only to be replaced by new and even more esoteric slang.

After all, when was the last time you heard someone shout “YOLO” before they downed their fifth shot of vodka?

And, if all that wasn’t enough, some slang words morph and change over time.

Take for instance the word “broski” that comes to us from the slang “bro.”

It is a strange mutation that leaves you asking whether a “broski” and a “bro” are the same thing?

 

What is the meaning of “broski”?

“Broski” is another term for “bro,” which is just short for “brother.” It is used to refer to someone who is a close friend and compatriot, someone so close that they are practically a brother. That said, guys immersed in “bro” or “frat” culture are no strangers to using “Broski” to address other males who are not necessarily close friends.

If you’re wondering what is “bro” culture, we’ll get to that momentarily. I promise you.

It is also worth noting that alternative spellings of “broski” include “brosky” and “broskie.”

 

A closer look at the “broski”

We all use filler words to refer to each other. These words can be “dude,” “sis,” “guys,” “man,” “girl,” or any other generic variant. And, we use these words extensively, most of the time without even noticing.

 

Example

That said, “bro” and “broski” are also filler words used to refer to other people, men in particular.

 

Example

Now, it is clear that “broski” is nothing more than the addition of “bro-” and the suffix “-ski.” While most of us know that the word “bro” is short for “brother,” let’s spend a little more time talking about that “-ski” part.

 

Where does the suffix “-ski” come from?

The suffix “-ski” shows up in several slang words, not just “broski.”

For example, “brewski” is another term for beer, and “buttinski” is a derisive term for someone who has a penchant for “butting in” or interrupting conversations where they are not welcome, which should explain the name “butt-in-ski.”

And, when someone is “offski,” it just means that they are heading off or leaving.

So, at face value, it might seem that the “-ski” suffix doesn’t alter the meaning all that much. Yet, that suffix has an interesting story.

You see, in Russian, “-ski” is an adjectival suffix, meaning it turns nouns into adjectives.

The parallel to this would be the suffix “-al” in English, where “norm” becomes “normal,” “clinic” becomes “clinical,” and “adjective” becomes “adjectival.”

This should partially explain where we get the word “Russki,” which is used to refer to a Russian individual.

Interestingly, the suffix “-ski” isn’t unique to Russian. Other languages that use the same suffix to create adjectives include Lower Sorbian, Slovene, and Polish.

In fact, in Polish, “-ski” is also used to create surnames, explaining where names like “Podolski” and “Brankowski” come from.

Ergo, when you call someone a “broski,” you are saying that one of their defining features is being a “bro.”

This leads to another question.

 

What exactly is a “bro”?

At face value, the answer here seems simple enough. A “bro” is a comrade, a close friend.

However, given that the word “bro” has a rich history, one much richer than you would assume at the outset, it is worth exploring this question a little further.

While a “bro” is supposedly used to refer to another male, the word “bro” itself has become so ubiquitous within a particular subculture that it has been dubbed “bro culture.”

And, anyone belonging to that niche has been identified as a “bro.” In fact, according to Oxford, “by being the sort of person who says ‘bro,’ a person becomes a ‘bro’.”

As a result, we identify the “bro” today as a teenager or a young adult who always wears their hat backward, drinks excessively, parties way too hard, and, for some unknown reason, loves Abercrombie and Fitch.

One more curious quality is that the majority of “bros” tend to be white males.

In fact, this stereotype is so pervasive that it has been made fun of in movies time and again. What’s more, “bro” has become a bit of a derogatory word nowadays.

If you describe someone as a “bro,” you might mean that they are a good friend. But, you might also mean that they are an airhead who tries too hard to prove how macho they are.

Interestingly, despite its current meaning, “bro” was originally used to refer to African-American men.

It gained popularity during the middle of the Twentieth century and became a derivation of the word “brother,” which is another way of referring to black men in the US.

However, as African-American culture got appropriated by white males in the US, the word “bro” slowly started shifting.

One of the pivotal points in this word’s history can be traced to the 1992 film Encino Man, where it says in the script that “Stoney and Hank have been bros since grammar school.”

Today, almost thirty years after Encino Man, the word “bro” has a very different meaning than where it first started.

What’s more, it is morphing and changing, giving rise to the “Bromanteau” phenomenon, which is a clever play on Portmanteau if you ask me.

The “Bromanteau” has given us words like brogrammer, brobituary, and brohemian. And, of course, we have the “broski.”