Meaning
What does Frat boy mean?
A Frat Boy is a member of a fraternity in a university or college.
A fraternity – Latin for “brotherhood” – is a social organization of male students who share the same interest and purpose – mainly getting Krunked.
Usually different fraternities are identified with various Greek letters.
A “Frat Boy” is not the biggest compliment one can receive.
On one hand, “Frat Boys” think so much about themselves simply because they are part of a fraternity, on the other, they are notorious for committing aggressive, or straight up Batshit Crazy atrocities.
Their behavior is most defined by drinking, throwing parties and generally being a Douchebag to anyone who isn’t a member in their brotherhood.
“Frat boy” had become a veritable archetype in pop culture, heavily influencing memes such as the Chad, Chad vs Virgin, GigaChad and Kyle.
Origin
What's the origin of Frat boy?
While the origin of the expression can not be accurately identified, its emergence is estimated to be around the 90s to the early 2000s, when fraternities gained a prominent place in youth films, such as “American Pie” or “National Lampoon’s Van Wilder”.
However, fraternities have been around way longer than that, especially in American colleges and universities.
College and university fraternities in the United States date back to the 1770s, but were not completely accepted as established traditions until the 1820s.
The oldest, known and active fraternity is the Kappa Alpha Society, which was founded in 1825 at Union College, although at that time a “Frat boy” stood closer to a gentleman than he does today.
Spread & Usage
How did Frat boy spread?
“Frat boy” earned its first entry on Urban Dictionary in January 2004, submitted by the user dread grey.
Throughout the years, the phrase “Frat Boy” gained a lot of recognition and popularity. On the famous video-sharing platform Youtube, there are many comedy sketches, music videos featuring “Frat Boys” and jokes about them.
For instance, the video titled When Frat Guys Come Home For The Summer, which since June 2019 has gained over 6,000,000 views.
Its popularity was also boosted in September 2016, when news about a “Frat boy cannibal killer” spread across the internet.
“Frat boy” had become a divisive phrase, taken as a compliment by some and as an insult by others.
What is sure, is that it has established its presence in popular culture so well, that the “Frat boy” trope can appear in a wide variety of contexts, including names as well as Halloween costumes, not to mention music, films and television series.
External resources
- Guest of a Guest – Every Type Of Frat Boy You’ll Meet In College