Here’s my favourite one-character adjectives in Mandarin. Big thanks to Bo and Jee for their help with explanations and translations.
1. 牛 niú. Original meaning: cow. New meaning: awesome. Derives from the common online slang expression 牛逼 niúbī (“cow’s vagina”).
2. 土 tǔ. Original meaning: dirt. New meaning: unsophisticated, especially of rednecks, hicks, bogans, etc.
3. 宅 zhái. Original meaning: residence. New meaning: to like staying at home, nerdy. Derives from Japanese.
4. 俗 sú. Original meaning: common, rustic. New meaning: unoriginal, tacky.
5. 贱 jiàn. Original meaning: inexpensive. New meaning: despicable, bitchy, nasty.
6. 红 hóng. Original meaning: red. New meaning: popular or revolutionary.
7. 猛 měng. Original meaning: strong, fierce. New meaning: awesome.
8. 抠 kōu. Original and current meaning as an adjective: stingy (as in cheap, miserly).
9. 黄 huáng. Original meaning: yellow. New meaning: pornographic.
10. 洋 yáng. Original meaning: ocean. Extended meaning: foreign or fashionable.
11. 黑 hēi. Original meaning: black. Extended meanings: dark, illegal, shady or greedy.
12. 火 huǒ. Original meaning: fire. New meaning: popular.
13. 损 sǔn. Original meaning: to damage. New meaning: immoral, wicked [缺德 quēdé].
14. 阴 yīn. Original meaning: the representation of women in Taoism, opposite of 阳 yáng. New meaning: cunning [狡诈 jiǎozhà].
15. 色 sè. Original meaning: colour. Extended meaning: lewd, dirty.
16. 萌 méng. Original meaning: sprout. New meaning: cute, adorable, especially of young boys or girls. Derives from Japanese.
17. 潮 cháo. Original meaning: tide. Extended meaning: fashionable.
18. 灵 líng. Original meaning: clever/spirit. Extended meaning: effective.
19. 二 èr. Original meaning: two. New meaning: stupid. From the slang expression 二百五 èrbǎiwǔ (“two hundred and fifty”).
20. 臭 chòu. Original meaning: stinky. Extended meaning: terrible, to suck at something.
I think all of these are very useful in everyday conversation, especially with younger people. All feedback and additions to the list are welcome!
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Oh wait I just remembered I forgot one: 骚 sāo (“slutty”).
Are these all used on the mainland? I had previously presumed some of these were Taiwan specific, such as 萌.
Yes all of those are in use on the mainland. 萌 is especially popular with young people at the moment on both sides of the strait.
萌 (at least among my friends in Shanghai) is pronounced as first tone when being used as “cute”.
I was wondering where the meaning for 萌 came from. Thanks for that. Interesting stuff!
Hen you yisi, Carl;)
I’ve been looking for a word my students would understand when translating Nerdy, thanks, very useful list you’ve made.
Oh, how could I forget 酷 kù as well!
Given the root meaning of 潮 cháo, does anybody else think that a better translation might be trendy or faddish?
Yes, I think you’re onto something.
would be nice if you had some examples!
Nice list. Here’s a couple of possible additions.
闷 men4 stuffy, boring. Used all the time to describe people, situations
冷 leng3 originally cold. corny, cheesy. Used after hearing a bad joke “好冷”
In Shandong or Dongbei, you need to use this word:
彪 biao1 = 二 er4 stupid or wacky
I’m hoping the rest of China starts using it.
Some great additions there, thanks a lot.
Do you know where 二百五 comes from? I’ve always wondered about the story behind it.
nice list, and some of the uses are new to me – like 損 i’ve only ever used in words like 損失 or 損害. 棒, 贊 ad 殺 are also a few common ones that could also be added.
卡尔，你很牛。。
“损”also means mean…i.e.你这人也太损了吧(you are so mean)
I think I’ve also heard 猛 in the context of “having a strong sex drive” or “being wild in bed” (我男朋友很猛，西方人太猛了)
Yeah, definitely. I’ve also come across “加油，猛男“ as a translation for “go get ‘em, tiger!” which I think is particularly spunky.
haha Carl, nice one.
I introduce a new word to you, 囧 jiong, pronounced same as 窘（窘迫）
囧 means odd, stupid, embarrassment. this word also looks like person’s face, like ‘dafeishi’ display image from your reply list.
This word is very popular these days.
Hey Wenny. Yeah I know 囧, but it’s not used as an adjective is it?
Hi Carl…another excellent post…my compliments. Just by the way…as you probably are aware the precice character for the bi in 牛逼 is 屄 although I would imagine the other variations of bi used are to get around using what some may consider a lewd character. Thanks for your wonderful dissemination of the Chinese language.
Yeah I know what you’re getting at, but 牛逼 is much more common than 牛屄 despite their etymologies. Compare Google hits: 牛逼: 41,900,000; 牛屄: 239,000.
Some more great adjectives I forgot to add:
雷 léi: 雷人 – Shocking.
作 zuō: – 1. 作死 – To have a death wish. 2. 装腔作势;故意做出某种表情、动作、姿态等 – Pretentious; angsty.
粘 nián: 缠住不放,使人难以脱身 – Needy.
滑 huá and 油 yóu: 浮滑，不诚实的 – Smooth; slick; glib.
Oh, and another good one – 凶 xiōng – roughly translated as “agressive”.
贱 is a really useful one, but hard to explain. But according to some explanations I’ve heard, means bitchy and maybe two-faced, especially to do with sex or relationships – for example, grinning lewdly at your ex-girlfriend when you have a new one…was recently called 很贱 by onlookers..
Often used in a joking way, mind.
Thanks for this post – great stuff!
Where do you find this stuff? I feel like most Chinese are extremely reticent to teach foreigners slang terms, instead using extremely proper standard Mandarin that isn’t as natural.
Like any learner, I’m curious, and I ask a lot of questions.
One of my friends used this one the other day: 翘[翹] qiào. It describes something that sticks out, e.g., an arse. Quite amusing I thought.
Here’s another I forgot: 阔 kuò. It means “rich” or “wealthy”.
Some more interesting ones I just thought of today:
腻 nì – 1. oily 2. boring (to the point that you’re sick of it)
刁 diāo – fussy; picky
面 miàn – weak
皮 pí – thick-skinned
铁 tiě – strong
乖 guāi – good (as in a child); obedient
Wow! I’ve even got some more that I forgot to add. These in particular are actually quite common:
娘 niāng: girly; effeminate.
嗲 diǎ: always acting like a spoilt child. 发嗲 and 撒娇 are the verbs.
拽 zhuǎi: always showing off.
There’s also a few more which are not terribly common but are still quite interesting nonetheless:
浮 fú: 1. frivolous (轻浮) 2. arrogant (骄傲).
次 cì: low quality, e.g. 这些产品质量很次。(These products are of such low quality.) This expression may be considered a little old-fashioned though.
绝 jué: taking things to extremes, e.g. 话说的太绝了，会得罪人的。(What he says is too extreme, and this will offend others.)
贫 pín: talking too much or saying many useless words that annoy people. Most commonly used in Beijing.