Too cool!
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I suppose it's been around for at least 5-10 years, but I just encountered the expression "tài shuǎng le 太爽了" in the English informal sense of "cool!". With 409,000 ghits, it seems to be fairly widespread, though not all of those ghits are to the informal sense of the English word (see the numbered items below for a variety of other meanings for this expression).
The construction "tài ADJ le 太 ADJ 了" means "too ADJ". By itself, shuǎng 爽 traditionally has meant "bright, clear; fresh, bracing", and so forth. As for how it morphed into the English informal sense of "cool", there is a disyllabic word, liángshuǎng 涼爽 ("cool; refreshing; exhilarating") from which it might have been adopted / adapted.
But shuǎng 爽 ("cool") has a formidable competitor, which I think was circulating even earlier in the Sinosphere, namely, kù 酷 (meaning "wonderful, neat, great" in youth speak), which is a direct transcription of English "cool". This kù 酷 ("cool") comes with an ironic twist, since it originally meant "ruthless, cruel, oppressive; extreme", etc.
As to which is more au courant, it's hard to determine in a definitive way, since their usage seems to vary considerably depending upon geographical and demographic criteria. Some correspondents tell me that shuǎng 爽 ("cool") is more popular than kù 酷 ("cool"). And there are all sorts of other subtle nuances involved, which are apparent from these responses:
1.
I do believe "太酷了" and "太爽了" have different meanings. For example, when you are drinking a glass of iced beer in the hot summer, you may say "太爽了" but never "太酷了".
"太爽了" is used to describe a subjective experience or a feeling, usually from food or some kind of recreation. For example, "xiàxuě tiān pào wēnquán shízài shì tài shuǎngle 下雪天泡温泉实在是太爽了" ("to soak in a hot spring on a snowy day is really refreshing").
"太酷了" is used to describe not only an activity but also the actor. If I see you are surfing, I may say "Professor Mair 太酷了", and you may say "Surfing in the summer 太爽了."
[VHM: transcription and translation of the sentence in the second paragraph are by me.]
2.
I think 爽 was originally used by Taiwanese guys and has a sexual connotation. I was corrected by Taiwanese friends and they suggest me not to use it as a decent lady :-). I think it's widely used by those who don't know this implication.
酷 is used more, as it's very close to English "cool." But I cannot be sure about this.
3.
爽: the speaker's feeling
酷: the speaker's comment on another subject, either a person or an object/event; not used to describe the speaker himself
If you really want to say simply that something is "cool" temperature wise, meaning "neither warm nor very cold", use liáng 涼, which has not yet been colored by the informal connotations of English "cool".
[Thanks to Rebecca Fu, Jing Wen, Jiajia Wang, Yixue Yang, and Fangyi Cheng]
Victor Mair said,
May 4, 2016 @ 2:43 pm
As additional responses to the o.p. com in, I will add them in this comment:
#4
It really depends and varies from person to person. As for me, 爽 sounds more idiomatic and the pronounciation of "shuang" is more 爽 than "ku".
Johnny said,
May 5, 2016 @ 1:16 am
I've never connected 爽 (shuang) with meaning "cool", but rather "feels great" or something along those lines. As responder 1 in your post said, it's all about the subjective experience. Do we have any examples of it being used to mean "cool"?
As responder 2 noted, I've also come across 爽 (pronounced "shui" in Hokkien if I remember correctly) being used like this in Taiwan, but almost always with a sexual connotation. I'd be interested to find out more about this usage and whether it is indeed the same word.
Junli Xiao said,
May 5, 2016 @ 9:56 am
Johnny,
As a native Taiwanese Hokkien/Mandarin speaker, I agree with you on that 爽's meaning is far from that of 酷 and I can hardly think of a context in which we can substitute one for the other.
(So, yes, Victor, your comparison between these two look somewhat odd to me. They are not a bit competitors. I think the only thing they have in common is their slanginess.)
As to your second point, I would say it is case-by-case whether 爽 carries a sexual connotation. However, I am quite sure 爽, whether in TW Mandarin or TW Hokkien, is informal or vulgar in many many cases, sexual or not, so you do HAVE TO be careful of how you use it, especially to people…you know. From the opposite point of view, sometimes using 爽 makes you more friendly and approachable.
One last point, 爽 in TW Hokkien is pronounced as song ("long"'s vowel), FYI.
Jason said,
May 5, 2016 @ 1:42 pm
When I first encountered 爽 and 酷 in Beijing in 1999, 爽 was always with a sexual connotation. Apparently that connotation has been lost.
Victor Mair said,
May 5, 2016 @ 1:52 pm
It was not I who made a comparison between "tài shuǎng le 太爽了" and "cool" (and thence to kù 酷). That is all over the internet and in online dictionaries and translation services, and was returned by many of my native speaker correspondents.
Johnny said,
May 5, 2016 @ 9:09 pm
Junli,
"Song" – that's it! Thank you.
Junli Xiao said,
May 5, 2016 @ 11:42 pm
Victor Mair,
Okay. I will check some of the search results and come back here later to give a better reply.
Johnny,
You're welcome.
Junli Xiao said,
May 7, 2016 @ 4:16 am
Victor Mair,
I want to make sure we start from the same premises.
If, when you refer to the informal sense of "cool!" in the article you are thinking about the approval sense as in the fourth example of 4 APPROVAL from:
http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/cool_1
'I'm thinking of studying abroad.' 'Really? Cool.'
, then I think I can agree with you. 太爽了 may be used to mean approval. The corresponding sentences of that example: '我在考慮出國讀書.' '真的嗎?太爽了吧.' sound fine and comprehensible to me. Still, it would be better If the 太爽了吧 is replaced by 太酷了吧, since one can easily doubt if studying abroad has that much fun. And although they both sound fine and mean approval, their point of view are different–exactly the distinction made in the Response 1 and 3.
I feel like this usage of 太爽了 is only popular among the relatively young Taiwanese adults, no more than 40 years old. As to its etymology, I guess it has little to do with 涼爽, but much to do with "feeling great" of 爽 in Hokkien. Close to the logic as in: 'I'm thinking of studying abroad.' 'Really? It's great!'