jabroni
noun
a knucklehead, meathead, jerk, etc.
What does jabroni mean?
Jabroni is something of an all-purpose yet somewhat mild put-down along the lines of loser, knucklehead, jerk, asshole, etc. It is usually used for a man. Jabroni also has a more specific sense in professional wrestling for a wrestler who loses a lot in scripted matches to make other wrestlers look good.
Examples of jabroni
The Bengals’ media team used the world wide web angle to its advantage for the 2023 schedule release, with the help of Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval. Pureval took jabs at the Kansas City Chiefs ahead of their 2023 AFC championship game against the Bengals. … After the Chiefs won, tight end and former UC player Travis Kelce responded by called the mayor a “jabroni.”
—Kaycee Sloan, The Cincinnati Enquirer, 14 May 2025
Using their numbers, one person will distract the seller while another messes with the car in some critical way. Then, when looking under the hood together, the scammers will point out the mechanical issue and try to buy it for significantly cheaper with the goal of turning around and selling it after a quick repair. What a bunch of jabronis.
—He is not, however, a random jabroni. He’s a billionaire twenty times over …
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Where does jabroni come from?
The OED’s oldest citation for the word is from a 1919 article in Variety with the spelling jiboney. “In Italian American contexts,” they note, the word was “often applied to newly arrived immigrants.” Rodale Press’s 1978 book The Synonym Finder listed jaboney as a synonym of both greenhorn and newcomer. 1988’s Random House Thesaurus of Slang included both jaboney and jibone (sans y) as derogatory synonyms of foreigner, and as synonyms (jiboney having a y in this instance) of guard and bodyguard.
Throughout the twentieth century, these spelling variants (and other less common ones) popped up in newspapers, magazines, and books, often suggesting someone tough and imposing but not necessarily bright.
I am essentially an ornery jaboney.
—Donelli was a tough jiboney.
—Many grown-ups have found “square” a handy insult because they had been using mild words of exclusion themselves for a long time—hayseed, hick, bumpkin, longhair … jaboney, clodhopper, moldy fig …
—“I doubt that,” the tall jaboney says, and he looks me up and down like he’s ready to step on me and squash me like a bug.
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By the 1990s, the variant jabroni appeared and began to pick up steam especially through use in professional wrestling, and later through television shows like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
In the ‘50s, the Zamboni sons … turned to the John Deere company to develop a riding ice shaver. Hence the slogan: “Nothing shaves like a Zamboni.” The more important question, though, is who was the jabroni who taught Zamboni to drive?
—… The Rock strutting around a flashy ring, bellowing scripted insults at a hapless jabroni.
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How is jabroni used?
Jabroni has some similarities with the more-established palooka, which can also be used for an inexperienced or incompetent fighter (in this case, a boxer) or for someone who is oafish or loutish.
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