The Twitter community has done it again. Before anyone could get around the meaning of Sco Pa Tu Manaa, Bomboclaat cropped up and further baffled the world. Interestingly, the former word is gibberish while the latter is sometimes used the wrong way.
So, what exactly does the “bomboclaat” meme mean and where did it come from?
The Origin of Bomboclaat
A Jamaican Twitter user, @rudebwoy_Iamz, first used the term Bomboclaat in a September 2019 tweet. The meme captioning Bomboclaat was of Winslow Thelonious Oddfellow from the Nickelodeon animated series CatDog.
The Winslow meme garnered a lot of reaction from Twitter users who responded by captioning side-by-side reaction images with Bomboclaat. Next, the trend made its way to Nigerian Twitter and the rest of the world.
In May 2020, Twitter users are still posting Bomboclaat memes.
The Definition
According to Urban Dictionary, Bomboclaat is a Jamaican Patios reactionary word used to show disdain, disgust, surprise, shock, or anger. On the other hand, dictionary.com reports a more literal meaning of the word that describes bathroom wipes or menstrual pads. “Bombo” translates to “bum” while “Claat” or “Clot” translates to “cloth.” This term has been recorded since 1956.
Therefore, while the term could express surprise, it is also an insult. That said, critics have expressed anger in the way some Twitter users have been using the word.
One user wrote: “Hi non-Jamaicans: The term ‘Bumboclaat’ or ‘Bomboclaat’ does not mean what you think it does. It is not a greeting, a question, or a means of asking one’s opinion. It is an expletive, one used to express shock, anger, excitement, or befuddlement. So stop using it. Thanks.”
As a result, you are using this term wrongly if you are:
- Uploading your picture with the caption of this trendy word
- Sharing your opinion about an image captioned Bomboclaat
- Saying what experience an image reminds you of
How to Use Bumboclaat
People who have used Bomboclaat incorrectly have confused it with Sco Pa Tu Manaa, a term that depending on who you ask is either gibberish or is used to share opinions about something on Twitter. The term is the name of a song by a Ghanaian artist but it is not associated with any Ghanaian language.
To use this word correctly, simply use it to express surprise or anger through a video or image. All you have to do is type your tweet including the word Bomboclaat and upload a relevant photo or video. Also, you can hashtag Bomboclaat in your tweet as shown below.
You can spell Bomboclaat as Bumboclaat or Bumbaclot.
Examples
To better understand how to use this meme, below are two examples of the meme posted on Twitter.
You could say that the above meme expresses shock.
This is a correct use of the trendy meme since the image will elicit shock from anyone who sees it.
As Twitter trends move from one strange word to another, it will be interesting to see what this community comes up with next.
