The Rock took to Twitter tonight and said he’s honored to have “jabroni” make Dictionary.com. The former WWE Champion also gave credit to WWE Hall of Famer The Iron Sheik, as he has done in past media interviews.
As noted earlier today, the dictionary website announced their largest single update in history, with more than 15,000 additions, including 650 new words, including one word that is popular with pro wrestling fans – jabroni. You can click here for our original report with the dictionary breakdown for the word, and Dictionary.com’s comments.
Rock tweeted this evening and joked that he’s making all of his old teachers very proud.
“Wow – very cool! Honored have a word actually make the dictionary,” he wrote. “Making my all my teachers very proud [winking face emoji] [tumbler glass emoji] For the record, I may have made the word ‘Jabroni’ (a noun, btw;) famous and part of [Earth emoji] culture, BUT the Iron Sheik made it famous in our wild wrestling locker rooms! [winking face emoji]”
Rock spoke with Esquire in June 2015 and was asked about the “jabroni” word. That’s when he specifically credited The Iron Sheik with being known for the word.
“When I was a kid, it was an inside term that guys would use,” Rock said. “When wrestlers wanted to have a private conversation when fans were present, they would start talking carny because they used to wrestle in carnivals. I thought it was so cool. Jabroni was a word that was always used in the derogatory sense. Oh, this jabroni, that jabroni. But the Iron Sheik was famous for saying the word constantly backstage. Jabroni, jabroni, jabroni. Around 1998, I thought, Why can’t I say it on TV? So I started saying it publicly, but the Iron Sheik was known for it.”
The Great One also credited The Iron Sheik for the word in his 2014 documentary, The Sheik.
“Now the word jabroni is connected to me,” Rock said (H/T to Newsweek). “When a lot of people think, ‘oh, jabroni, oh, yeah, yeah, it’s The Rock’s word.’ No, no, no, no. It’s not my word. It’s the Iron Sheik’s word.”
This is not the first time that Rock has helped get a pro wrestling word into the dictionary. The word “SmackDown” was added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary in 2007.
You can see Rock’s full tweet below:
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