The story
- Italian · derived fromgiambone
- English todayjabroni
Alteration of earlier gibone (also spelled jiboney, jaboney, etc.), possibly from dialectal Italian giambone (“ham”, also “self-important fool”). As a wrestling term, it was popularized by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who claimed to have borrowed it from the Iron Sheik. Prior to its popularization by Johnson, the term had also been used by Scott Hall, Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, and others.
Words from the same roots
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.