「ねえ、この服、ちょっとダサくない？」
= Nee kono fuku chotto dasauku nai?
= Hey, don’t you think these clothes are a bit tacky?
Today’s colloquial word is ださい=ダサい=dasai. It is not a new word but while many other slang expressions have vanished, people still use this word.
It means not cool, dorky, tacky, hideous, lame, geeky, unfashionable, and basically means “to suck”.
It is usually used to describe unstylish clothes or a person who is not sophisticated, a lame-o, a country bumpkin.
Sometimes we say just「だっさ！」=Dassa! or 「ダサッ！！」= Dasá!
「だっせ〜!」= Dasee! or 「だせえ!」= Dasee! (Male talk) to insult someone who is not cool or describe their bad taste in clothes.
Ex. あいつはださいやつだ。(derogatory)
= Aitsu wa dasai yatsu da.
= He is a lame-o!
Ex. えっ！？自転車で通勤してるの？ダッサーイ！
=Eh!? Jitensha de tsuukin shiteruno? Dassaai!
= What? You commute by bike? How geeky (dorky) !
Ex. 「うわっ！マギーの服、ダサっ！！」
= Uwá!! Maggie no fuku , dasá!!
=Whoa！Maggie looks dorky in that clothes!
Ex. あの髪型ダッサ！
=Ano kamigata dassa!
= That hairdo is not cool!
Ex. デートにこんなダサいドレスは着て行けないわ。(Female talk)
= Deito ni konna dasai fuku wo kite ikenai wa.
= I can’t wear this lame dress for a date!
Ex. ジーンズにその靴を合わせるのはダサイよ！
= Jiinzu ni sono kutsu wo awaseru nowa dasaiyo!
= It is not cool to wear those shoes with jeans.
Synonyms :
•恰好が悪い= kakkou ga warui = unstylish, hideous, not cool
•カッコ悪い = Kakko warui = uncool
•田舎くさい = Inaka kusai = provincial
•趣味が悪い = shumi ga warui = bad taste
•時代遅れ = jidai okure = out of fashion, out of date
•いけてない =イケてない= iketenai (slang) Check いけてる lesson
Antonyms :
•洗練された = senren sareta = sophisticated
•お洒落な = osharena = fashionable
•素敵な = sutekina =nice, fabulous
•いかした = ikashita = cool
•いけてる =イケてる= iketeru = cool Check the いけてる lesson
「こっちの方がイケてるでしょ！」
= Kocchi no hou ga iketeru desho!
= This one is cooler, right?
マギー先生より = Maggie Sensei yori = From Maggie Sensei
私、ファッションにはうるさいの。
= Watashi fasshion niwa urusai no
=When it comes to fashion, I am picky.
10 Comments
Hey Maggie! Ignacio here. I was looking for the etimology of ダサイ, its origin, and found out that you made a post of the word long time ago. Where does it come from?
Thanks!
Hi Ignacio,
One of the theories is from an old expression だしゃ which refer to a person from the country.
This word has spread and became very popular when a comedian, Tamori, mock on Saitama prefecture as ダ埼玉= da saitama making a pun.
@Ignacio, I remember someone explaining it on TV (it might have also been Tamori) that it comes from 「だって、埼玉だもん」. I can’t really say if that’s true or not, or if it was just his play on the word.
Can it ever take the opposite meaning? I mean, this happens with slang sometimes, right – for instance saying – that’s so bad! – i.e. to mean good?
On a recent pop video in YouTube, someone posted a comment: “衣装ダサい（褒め言葉”
An opposite meaning would make better sense? – I thought the bit in brackets pointed to that too. Plus, the outfits were cool (well, that’s what I thought //0//…
What do you think? When I tried to search on ‘dasai’ used positively,… I came up with nothing so, wasn’t sure…
@nonoji
A word ヤバい is yes. You can use it in a positive way and negative way.
Unless it has (褒め言葉) or (いい意味で）etc, we take ダサい as a negative word.
However, sometimes you combine with other positive word to create another slang.
ダサい dorky ＋かわいい cute, adorable ＝ダサかわいい。adorkable
ダサい+ かっこいい cool ＝ダサかっこいい dorky but cool
Good lesson but commuting by bike is definitely mecha Kakkoii!
@James
Thank you!! Commuting by bike? Oohh that was a good old day…
Dasai. A cool word, even though..er, it’s so uncool.
My friend Masumoto just emailed me (which is why I found your blog) about how Saitama translates as ‘Sh*t F*ck’ in Taiwanese.
He’s in Taiwan at the moment and from Saitama. The two are related. As he describes Saitama as ‘dasai’ and ‘kusai’ to anyone who will listen.
こんばんは、マーギーせんせい！さいきん、わたしはこのサイトがよくちゅういしないで、ほんとにごめんなさい！でも、にこんごをいしょうけんめいにべんきょうしますよが！
にこんテレビもまいにちでみる、にこんおんがくもまいにちできく！
マーギーのふくは、すごくかわいいですね！Dudley is jealous!
@Tiffany
ひさしぶり！！げんきでしたか？ Dudleyもげんきですか？
Wow you must have been studying hard. I can tell!
(Note for you : にこん→にほん、まいにちで→まいにち べんきょうしますよが→べんきょうしてますよ。)
If you want, follow me on twitter. We have been practicing writing almost everyday!