“I ain’t have any homework.” Or if we really wanted to rile her up we’d hit her with a two-fer, “I ain’t got no homework.”
After a while though, her repeated lessons stuck.
“I don’t have any homework.”
Now I wonder though, how would she interpret the one word I hear constantly every day all day long at home and at work?
“Bruh.”
Merriam Webster defines bruh — or bro — as a male friend or a term used as a friendly way of addressing a man or boy.
Bruh was added to the Merriam Webster dictionary in 2016 but the first known use of “bruh” happened in 1894 (yes, really). These days though, it seems to have taken on new meaning or more accurately, meanings.
“Go clean your room.”
My daughter: “Bruh.”
I interpret that to mean something like, “Really? I don’t want to.”
“Feed the cats.”
“Bruh, it’s not my turn.”
In this case, it must mean “mom” because my children would certainly never address me as “bruh.” Right … ?
Students at my day job, “Do we have to do this whole worksheet?”
“Yes.”
“Bbbbbrrruuuuuhhhhhhhh…”
I believe this is used to lodge a complaint, maybe?
Occasionally bruh is used in its original form, bro.
“BRO!! Get outta here!”
Somehow, this does not sound like a friendly way to address a man or boy, or anyone really, but what do I know?
Fun fact, “brah” — another dialect of bruh — is not in the dictionary. Yet.
But to my mother’s dismay, ain’t is in the dictionary. In fact Webster’s Third New International Dictionary added ain’t (as well as “chocoholic”) in 1961.
So, even back in the day my mom was wrong, but I ain’t gonna be the one to tell her, bruh.
Motherhood, Part II, is a recurring column in the News-Sun.
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