bromance

English

Etymology

PIE word
*bʰréh₂tēr

Blend of bro +‎ romance. Coined by American editor Dave Carnie 1990s as part of an article for the skateboard magazine Big Brother to refer specifically to the sort of relationships that develop between skaters who spent a great deal of time together.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹoʊmæns/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹəʊmæns/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: bro‧mance

Noun

bromance (countable and uncountable, plural bromances)

1. (informal) A close but non-sexual relationship between men.

   There is a bromance between Josh and David.

   • 2001 April, “WORD”, in TransWorld Surf‎^[2], retrieved 2018-01-06, page 40:

     Bromance—Romance between bros. Example: ‘It looks like there's a bit of bromance between Ryan and Matt.’

   • 2020 June 23, John Bolton, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 96:

     The letter was pure puffery, probably written by some clerk in North Korea's agitprop bureau, but Trump loved it. This was the beginning of the Trump-Kim bromance.

Synonyms

• brolationship
• man crush

Coordinate terms

• girl crush
• sismance
• womance

Derived terms

• bromancey
• bromantic

Translations

close but non-sexual relationship between men

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 基友 (jīyǒu), 男漫 (nánmàn), 兄弟情 (xiōngdìqíng), 兄弟情誼／兄弟情谊 (xiōngdì qíngyì)

• Finnish: kaveruus (fi)
• French: bromance (fr) f
• German: Bromance (de) f
• Japanese: ブロマンス (buromansu)
• Korean: 브로맨스 (beuromaenseu)
• Polish: męska przyjaźń f
• Russian: брома́нс (ru) m (brománs)

See also

• romantic friendship
• queerplatonic

Anagrams

• Camborne