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What's the meaning of troop on in this comment?

Troop on, brotato. Get well soon.

The comment was made in response to someone who's suddenly gotten really sick and has to stay in the hospital. Is this some kind of slang?

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It's probably pretty much a "one-off" usage, rather than "established slang". The speaker means soldier on, carry on, march on, as in carry on as you are. It doesn't really "mean" anything - just a general expression of support for his "brotato" (a fairly unusual slang term for brother, comrade, friend). A Brit might say "All power to your elbow, mate!" in similar contexts. – FumbleFingers Feb 3 at 17:55
What is "brotato"? Is it a feature of American or Canadian English? – Tristan Feb 3 at 18:47
I understand "More power to your elbow" to be an encouragement for continued success rather than toward perseverance. Do I have that wrong? – Jim Feb 3 at 18:56
@Jim: Okay, that particular one might not be exactly right for OP's specific context, which really is nothing more than "Keep your spirits up and get well soon, my friend". But let's not overanalyse a usage which is at the very least not a known idiom, even if it's not precisely a one-off. As much as anything, it's probably intended to be a bit vague/non-standard (as in "We're mates with our own private vocabulary"). In fact, I think I've got to say it's Too Localised. – FumbleFingers Feb 3 at 19:08
I'm not overanalyzing it. Oftentimes, I want to make sure I understand everything I read here, and not try to improperly infer something. My intent is to have new-to-me terminology ready for later use, and I would suppose the same holds for a lot of observers here. I can assume you are an authoritative source on British English, but I would rather politely ask for clarification. – Jim Feb 3 at 19:15
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2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Common senses of the verb troop seem not-applicable here, where the sense in use might instead be a back-formation from a well-known sense of trooper, “One who endures adversity or hardship with an attitude of stoicism and persistence”; or it may be, as FumbleFingers suggests, a variant of soldier on, carry on, march on. That is, in this context troop on means “endure this adversity without letting it overcome you” .

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While not used often, I imagine it is similar to "soldier on", which means

to persist in one's efforts in spite of difficulties, pressure, etc.

Other more common phrases are "keep your chin up" or "hang in there".

I suppose the British might say something like "keep a stiff upper lip" but I don't know how current that is.

(In French, it's « Bon Courage ».)

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