I encountered the slang word 'bruv' for the first time not long ago while playing Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.
The word is used quite a lot by a genius scientist character named Gladstone Katoa, but I think other characters use it as well. The game was made by 2K Australia, and a lot of the voice actors have Australian accents. It also seems like they're probably using Australian slang, but never having been to Australia I can't say for sure. Some of the characters seem more English than Australian, but they're all in an absurd sci-fi setting on a fictional planet, so they aren't really of any Earth nationality.
To my American ears, this word sounds a lot like 'bro'. 'Bro' has a lot of connotations in American English, summarized a bit in this Wikipedia article. Basically, if you use the word 'bro' a lot, many will think you an uneducated fool.
It may be useful to note that Gladstone does not have a thick accent, and he's not pronouncing every 'th' as a 'v', he's just using this word a lot when speaking directly to the player, whom he barely knows.
Hearing a genius scientist say 'bro' over and over would be a bit odd, and therefore hearing Gladstone say 'bruv' over and over sounds odd to me. I'm wondering if this was intentional on the part of the game designers.
In other words, should Gladstone saying 'bruv' all the time sound incongruous, or would a native British or Australian English speaker feel that it sounded completely natural?
Best Answer
Bruv can be a friendly, jocular way to greet a close friend or indeed a brother.
In London, I wouldn't hear it being used among strangers unlike the female expression luv which means love or its male version mate.
A London black cab driver might ask a female passenger:
But to a male customer he is more likely to say:
But among friends who are of a similar age one might hear this greeting:
As to whether the listener or receiver would consider the speaker to be uneducated or uncouth, I would say "absolutely not!" It's a very friendly dialectal term used mainly among Londoners. Unfortunately I can't say if the term is used in other inner cities in the UK, it could be.
As I already mentioned, a BrEng speaker (of either sex) is unlikely to greet a stranger as bruv or bruvver, but if they did it would be simply brushed off. Obviously in a more formal context such as a job interview, it would be a serious faux pas and would reflect negatively on their character and level of manners.