JABRONI!: The Rock's catchphrase given official dictionary status

Do you smell what The Rock is cooking?

If not, then you might be a jabroni.

One of Dwayne Johnson’s iconic wrestling catchphrases, “jabroni,” is now an official word after it was included as one of 650 words in the September update at a

Dictionary.com

.

According to the official dictionary definition, jabroni (a noun) is slang for “a stupid, foolish, or contemptible person; loser.”

There was also a second definition for the word, which likely only professional wrestling fans will understand: “a wrestler whose purpose is to lose matches against headlining wrestlers in order to build status and fame of the headliners.”

While the origins of the word are unknown, according to Dictionary.com, it could have come from the upper Italian dialect giambone, which means “ham.”

As The Rock, Johnson called many of his opponents jabronis in promos leading up to a featured match. To hype himself up, The Rock (in the third person) would often refer to himself as the “jabroni beating, pie eating, trailblazing, eyebrow-raising, heart-stopping, elbow dropping, people’s champ, The Rock!”

While Johnson is credited in popularizing the word in the late 1990s, jabroni actually originated by WWE Hall of Famer The Iron Sheik.

Wow – very cool!
Honored have a word actually make the dictionary.
Making my all my teachers very proud ??
For the record, I may have made the word “Jabroni” (a noun, btw;) famous and part of ? culture, BUT the Iron Sheik made it famous in our wild wrestling locker rooms!? https://t.co/ivsCkeVMJA

— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) September 1, 2020

“I was very lucky and fortunate to coin the word ‘jabroni’ publically on TV. Utilize it as part of my Rock speak and have it be part of pop culture,” Johnson said in the 2014 documentary ‘The Sheik.’ “When a lot of people think of ‘jabroni’ they think, ‘Oh it’s The Rock’s word.’ No, no, no, no, no. It’s not my word. It’s The Iron Sheik’s word.”

This isn’t the first time one of Johnson’s catchphrases has made the pages of a dictionary. In 2007, The Rock’s phrase “smackdown” was made official by Merriam-Webster.