“Bruh” chosen over “bro” as Dutch children’s word of the year in 2024
By Simone Jacobs
Dutch kiddos have voted and the Children’s Word of the Year for 2024 is… bruh. The word beat out “bro” with the most votes in an election held by the NOS Jeugdjournaal.
“Bruh” chosen as Children’s Word of the Year 2024
As part of the first-ever contest of its kind in the Netherlands organised by the youth news journal, children were invited to send in words that they thought should be on the list. According to NOS, over 20.000 words were sent in.
130.000 votes later and “bruh” came out on top with 53 percent of votes. “Bro” came in close second with 47 percent of votes. Both words are derived from the English word "brother". “Bro” is used by many to address a friend, for example when asking how they are: "What's up, bro?" “Bruh” on the other hand can be used to express disappointment, for example when something is found surprising or negative: "Bruh, you're kidding".
Online world plays a role in language of Dutch children
"Children discover the words via the internet and turn them into colloquial language. They use those words all the time among themselves,” said Jeudgjournaal reporter Bart Tuinman. “You just notice that they want their own language, to demarcate a bit: 'This is ours!'"
Here are some of the other words that were in the running for Children’s Word of the Year:
- Sigma - Refers to strong, silent individuals who are considered cool
- Slay - Describes someone doing something exceptionally well
- Glamour - When something is very attractive
- Ohio - Refers to something creepy or weird
- Rizzler - Refers to someone with charisma
- Skibidi - Describes anything ranging from really cool to really stupid
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Editor for the Netherlands at IamExpat Media. Simone studied Genetics and Zoology at the University of Pretoria in South Africa before moving to the Netherlands, where she has been working as a writer and editor since 2022. One thing she loves more than creating content is consuming it, mainly by reading books by the dozen. Other than being a book dragon, she is also a nature lover and enjoys hiking and animal training. Read more