A combination of the words ''Stupid and Proud'' - Stroud is actually a
pretty clever word, originating from the Bradford County region of Pennsylvania, and is used in reference to someone who has never been in a fight, been affiliated with a gang or ''street life'', or been anywhere beyond the 20 mile stretch of the city they were born in, yet dresses and acts as if they have.
Where the word is generally used in this context, it is also used as an expression for a deadbeat father, a freeloader, a manipulator, and has on occasion been used to reference a pathological liar.
The term began circulating around the region, and subsequently nationally, in
2016, when a young
boy named
Brad and his
friends broke into a house and assaulted an elderly man, before stealing from him. The young
boy would go on to gloat to all of his
friends and on social media about the crime, before eventually being arrested and sentenced to prison, where he then began pretending he was a ''gangster'' or a ''thug'', wearing ''thug life'' shirts, and referring to himself as ''the mob enforcer''.
A
meme of the
boy throwing up gang signs and wearing fake jewelery spread across local social media in 2019, followed by the boys alleged cellmate claiming that the
boy was his ''babygirl'' later that year, spiking popularity in the words use.
