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Since 屌 means "genitals" and 丝 means "hair", 屌丝 basically means "pubes".

But then Mandarin speaking audiences seem to accept and openly use this dirty word.

What am I missing? If it's a dirty word like it seems to be why doesn't it get censored / bleeped out?

hippietrail
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Ave Maleficum
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  • It means 'loser'. As a mandarin speaker, I find it hard to accept the word too -- I do not use it at all myself. – user58955 Mar 16 '14 at 12:04
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    Close vote as primarily opinion based, I personally feel it's an individuals choice to use or not use valgur language. – 50-3 Mar 16 '14 at 13:40
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    @50-3 No, it's not, it's a very interesting social phenomena. – Ave Maleficum Mar 16 '14 at 14:21
  • It's interesting, but it's still an opinion. – deutschZuid Mar 16 '14 at 21:35
  • @deutschZuid It's widely used in Chinese Mandarin now, so it's not a personal opinion. – Ave Maleficum Mar 16 '14 at 23:54
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    @AveMaleficum The opinion part is about 'why it can be accepted and openly used', not 'whether it's accepted and openly used'. Note the difference. – deutschZuid Mar 17 '14 at 01:17
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    There's a very common Mexican vulgar slang word in Mexican Spanish. Pendejo literally means "pube" but is used to mean something like "loser". I'm not sure whether it would be bleeped on prime time TV. You hear it in movies where worse language is also used without bleeping. – hippietrail Mar 17 '14 at 07:13
  • @50-3: This question is no more opinion-based than a question asking about which hanzi to write yìjiàn would be. A question exploring the varying social acceptability of a word is an opinion-based word. You've used some strange kind of broken logic to conclude otherwise. – hippietrail Mar 17 '14 at 07:18
  • @deutschZuid: Neither of those two ways of looking at this question is what Stack Exchange means by "opinion based question". user3306356 has provided an informative answer which teaches us Chinese learners about the perceptions native speakers have. He has not just written his opinion. Note the difference. – hippietrail Mar 17 '14 at 07:21
  • This is really a complex question, and maybe you can find some interesting opinions from Google China. Anyway it's often used on the web by young man, and in my case, I don't use it at all. –  Mar 17 '14 at 08:25
  • It is because chinese people have a sense of Self - mockery. – Jichao Mar 17 '14 at 10:52
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    @hippietrail "answers to this question will tend to be almost entirely based on opinions, rather than facts, references, or specific expertise." The question concluded the word was valgur and asked How people could accept such filthy words. That is an opinion based question, just because someone has written a rational explanation doesn't change that. I like the question but it's not a Good fit for the site as it's open ended and opinion based. – 50-3 Mar 17 '14 at 12:16
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    The OP is not a native English speaker so you can read it literally as a loaded question as you have but I suppose I prefer a more generous reading that fits with the answer given. Remember that questions on Stack Exchange are not primarily for the OP but for all the people that arrive here via web searches in the future. I think this thread viewed as a complete question and answer has value despite the OP's poor way of asking. – hippietrail Mar 17 '14 at 12:23
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    @hippietrail then edit the question so it can be read that way easily. I would edit it but I can't work out How to turn this into a acceptable question. I would happily give the question a +1 if it was well constructed. – 50-3 Mar 17 '14 at 20:31
  • @Jichao I would not make a generalising statement like this. – deutschZuid Mar 18 '14 at 04:02
  • @AveMaleficum: Do you want to try to reword your question first, or should one of us try? – hippietrail Mar 18 '14 at 05:21
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    @hippietrail Go head, Sir. – Ave Maleficum Mar 18 '14 at 06:20
  • I took a crack at re-wording it. Please feel free to edit it some more as I don't personally have experience of this. I'm just trying to distil what's being asked from reading the comments and answer. – hippietrail Mar 18 '14 at 06:40
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    @hippietrail I get what's being asked now -_- +1 I noticed you're back in Japan now? Not going to be seeing as many questions from you :( – 50-3 Mar 18 '14 at 06:54
  • Yes I'll be focusing on Japanese for now but I'm pretty worried about losing the Chinese I struggled to learn! – hippietrail Mar 18 '14 at 06:55
  • @50-3: Despite all this, the question has now been closed after my clarifications anyway \-: – hippietrail Mar 18 '14 at 08:18
  • Nominating to re-open based upon most recent revision. The opinion based elements have been removed and now meets the guidelines laid out in the help Centre – 50-3 Mar 18 '14 at 08:50
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    是的，你理解的没错，有些人就是这么没素质，我也非常痛恨。 – http8086 Mar 23 '14 at 03:27

1 Answers1

5

To most people the origin of 屌 is not really that clear.

KEY dictionary

2. {TW usage} swagger, be cocky/brash; be imposing, be "bad-ass"

cc c-edict

3. cool or extraordinary (colloquial)

Jay Chou 周杰伦 always goes around saying:

超屌

On Baidu there are even people who ask:

周杰伦总是说“超屌”,为什么这两个字被禁了呢?

Why is Jay Chou's “超屌” always getting censored?

So to most people 屌 just means cool...despite it's origin...and while others may think it sounds vulgar they know that is certainly doesn't not mean genitals.

As far as the origin goes this baidu user explains pretty well:

吊丝是早年李毅吧和三巨头吧互掐的时候三巨头用来骂毅丝的，之后被毅丝们用来自嘲，为什么会火，
那是因为李毅吧有内涵，号称百度卢浮宫

basically it was just a way for people to call Li Yi's fans on 贴吧... 丝 is from 粉丝 for "fans" and well 屌 you already know...

hippietrail
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Mou某
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