Trendy Thai Word For 'cool!'

[chanchao]

Just had this interesting thing come up on the LP forum and I thought I'd share it here and perhaps get some more input.

Topic at hand is a trendy word for "Cool!" (as in 'awesome', 'great')

---

I think it needs something more hip & trendy than just 'fun / Sanuk'

'jaeng+' (แจ๋ง) (rising tone) is an option.

Let me ask some of the younger female staff here, hold on.

---

And Anil showed his age by submitting:

> in Thai, it'd be "Taeh" - เท่ห์

:-) (I'd write that one as "Tey!" though, as in "Hey!" ( falling tone)

Anyway, the Thai Teenage Thinktank, Chiang Mai branch, came up with:

เริ่ด - Roed! (Or Loed! with an L for that matter) (Falling tone, think of it as "Rad!"

สุดยอด - Sood' Yoad! (Awesome!, 'Extreme'! but not super-trendy-speak)

จ๊าบ - Jaab^ (High tone, Heard this one like 8 years ago so I seriously question it's trendyness.. This one's very much 'out'.

เก๋า - 'Kao?' (Rising) Never heard that one before, so it might fit the bill in terms of trendyness....

Someone explained it as: "เก๋า (Kao+?) is used when you see something cool, like a new Mini Cooper or something you think it's super trendy." (Those are the kind of Thai teachers you need... Who can come up with a good word, AND can explain it.. )

'Kao?' is a bit difficult to get right if your tones are iffy... Nobody would think a foreigner would even know the word, and if you don't pronounce it exactly right they'd think you say " kao' " with a low tone, which is a MUCH more common word and means 'old', so quite the opposite of what you're trying to say! With words like these, i.e. that are typically used without context all by themselves it's important to get the tone right. And with exclamations especially it's difficult for many foreigners to 'override' the almost automatic falling tone (exclamation sounds like falling tone, as in "COOL!!" so this is double hard to get right. Anil's 'Tey!' is then the safer option, also as it already has the falling tone. "Roed" also is falling so also good, 'oe' it's pronounced like the e in 'herd' or 'heard', but shorter. " Lerd!!!! "

I'll make it a point to start using Kao? though.

Oh yes, funny MSN episode just now.. Some girl found it's very embarassing to write 'Sure' in English but leave your keyboard still on Thai text.... :-)))) I could almost see her red face through the MSN window.

[meadish_sweetball]

What words for 'cool' are actually 'cool' to use very much depends on the environment I suppose.

I have heard many people would never use jáab จา๊บ anymore, but my GF thinks it's fine, she doesn't perceive/agree with the reversal in meaning to 'uncool'. This is probably an age thing.

I have been cautioned by her and other friends not to use roed / lerd เริ่ด since it is not normally used in straight male speech, but rather by girls and khatoeys. (A word of caution to every guy who is careful about not compromising his 'straight' image, is to not emulate your girlfriend or her female friends too much as you might end up unwittingly sounding like a khatoey.)

เท่ห์ 'thee' with falling tone is the word for 'cool' that I hear most often, and also the one I use.

แจ๋ง I think is incorrect. I believe it should be เจ๋ง jeng (rising tone and sara ee, not sara ae) instead?

I think เก๋า is used kind of similar to 'old school' in American slang - basically, something that is old but still very cool because you show you have taste when you like it. A Minicooper is probably a very good example for Thailand. It's the retro trend where conscious and selective nerdiness is perceived as cool...

My best interpretations, feel free to disagree...

[Richard W]

Oh yes, funny MSN episode just now.. Some girl found it's very embarassing to write 'Sure' in English but leave your keyboard still on Thai text.... :-)))) I could almost see her red face through the MSN window.

What does the พำ part mean in context? A literal translation makes no sense to me. (I take it you meant 'sure', not 'Sure'.)

[meadish_sweetball]

Oh yes, funny MSN episode just now.. Some girl found it's very embarassing to write 'Sure' in English but leave your keyboard still on Thai text.... :-)))) I could almost see her red face through the MSN window.

What does the พำ part mean in context? A literal translation makes no sense to me. (I take it you meant 'sure', not 'Sure'.)

As far as I can tell, 'pham' is not a word in itself, but part of an "elborate colloquial expression" as Mary Haas calls them -

พึมพำ pheumpham - to murmur, mumble.

บ่นพึมพ bonphympham - to mutter (under one's breath)

Although that reminds me of a story:

A: Do you know why tights are called mumblepants?

B: I have not a clue.

A: You can see the lips moving, but there is no sound.

[MasterPaolo]

Hi,

I did type "sure" in Thai keyboard and that's ......

'SU' is a "Cxxx", a female part

and 'RE' is a male part. ...................how creative.

"cool"

I think meadish's right and I think think เจ็ง Jeng is the best one (informal).

เทห์ Thee is a more common use i.e. Your car's cool (Rod khun Thee Jung!).

A teenager might say (Rod Jeng or Rod Jeng Jeng รถเจ๊งเจ็ง = a lower tone on the first Jeng).

However, you might hear this and they also mean 'cool'.

- เด็ด (Dede short sound and same when pronounce to 7)

i.e. Dede Mak = pretty cool.

- เด็ดดวง (Dede Doung) was used in old day like in 70's but I heard someone said it lately. I guess it might comes back in fashion.

- สะแด่ว (Sa daew) another old word

New cool words. The most recent one I've known are these 2 words.

"Naew and Baan" (they have the opposite meaning).

- Naew (แนว) is mostly used when you see someone that dress uniquely from others/drive uncommon car/ cool job/ highly self confident that kinda thing.

They are seen as cool people in Thai teenage eyes, I think. They're someone like Art direct of a TV/print ad. They're kinda arty and a trend leader. So I guess that "Naew" can also mean "Cool". Please comment on this.

- Baan (บ้าน) or BaanBaan (when saying) is totally the opposite to Naew.

It means something or someone that's not uniquely different from other,

follow the trend, just like others. I.e. All Siam Square kids dress the same way

(Deg Siam Square Taeng Tou BaanBaan).

I'll think for more.

[sabaijai]

All of these except perhaps เริ่ด have been around a long time already. However I don't really think of สุดยอด as slang as this expression is used in more formal register as well (eg, to mean 'the best' in all manner of general applications, such as 'best movie' etc).

A true test of whether a Thai term is slang, in my opinion, is whether it can be found in Thai dictionaries. If it can, it's not slang, because Thai dictionaries avoid listing slang (which is a shame, but that's another topic altogether).

เท่ห์ 'thee' with falling tone is the word for 'cool' that I hear most often, and also the one I use.

The more common spelling of this is เท่ (at least in Internet and magazine usage). I most often hear this one used to refer to something that looks cool, like a wicked goatee or suede elf shoes not as much as a general word for 'cool'. Often followed by ดี as in เท่ดี. Add the ห์ and you have a Pali/Sanskrit-derived word related to deva, divine, etc, but I don't think that in slang usage that's why the ห is there - I think it's just another modern Thai device (like adding ส์ to มัน as in มันส์ to make 'fun' look more foreign) though I could be wrong. Either way the non-ห์ spelling is far more common. Or do folks think these are two separate words (slang-wise that is)? Hmmm ...

For me, เจ๋ง seems to be the closest to the English world 'cool' in its most general usage, especially as applied to people or situations.

Back to เริ่ด I've been wondering why you see a mai ehk here. Without it, the word literally means 'in a ruined state' and I can't fathom what the mai ehk adds to it, tone-wise. The mai ehk serves no purpose since without mai ehk the word already has a fallng tone. I've seen the word used as slang without the mai ehk as well, but not nearly as often.

Or is it merely an attempted 'farang' pronunciation for the standard Thai word เลิิศ (also spelt เลิิด), another word for 'the best', used often in restaurant names in conjunction with รศ (taste), as in รศเลิศ?

Without the mai ehk I'd simply assume it's contrarian application of 'in a ruined state' but the mai ehk makes me suspect it's a farang-ising of เลิด, as in the case of /shan/ (no Thai spelling exists) for ฉัน -- in other words making the assumption that /r/ sounds more 'farang' than /l/, and that adding a mai ehk implieds skewing the tone (in what direction? can't tell!) as a 'farang' Thai speaker might do.

Edited October 6, 2004 by sabaijai

[meadish_sweetball]

All of these except perhaps เริ่ด have been around a long time already. However I don't really think of สุดยอด as slang as this expression is used in more formal register as well (eg, to mean 'the best' in all manner of general applications, such as 'best movie' etc).

A true test of whether a Thai term is slang, in my opinion, is whether it can be found in Thai dictionaries. If it can, it's not slang, because Thai dictionaries avoid listing slang (which is a shame, but that's another topic altogether).

เท่ห์ 'thee' with falling tone is the word for 'cool' that I hear most often, and also the one I use.

The more common spelling of this is เท่ (at least in Internet and magazine usage). I most often hear this one used to refer to something that looks cool, like a wicked goatee or suede elf shoes not as much as a general word for 'cool'. Often followed by ดี as in เท่ดี. Add the ห์ and you have a Pali/Sanskrit-derived word related to deva, divine, etc, but I don't think that in slang usage that's why the ห is there - I think it's just another modern Thai device (like adding ส์ to มัน as in มันส์ to make 'fun' look more foreign) though I could be wrong. Either way the non-ห์ spelling is far more common. Or do folks think these are two separate words (slang-wise that is)? Hmmm ...

For me, เจ๋ง seems to be the closest to the English world 'cool' in its most general usage, especially as applied to people or situations.

Back to เริ่ด I've been wondering why you see a mai ehk here. Without it, the word literally means 'in a ruined state' and I can't fathom what the mai ehk adds to it, tone-wise. The mai ehk serves no purpose since without mai ehk the word already has a fallng tone. I've seen the word used as slang without the mai ehk as well, but not nearly as often.

Or is it merely an attempted 'farang' pronunciation for the standard Thai word เลิิด, another word for 'the best', used often in restaurant names in conjunction with รศ (taste), as in รศเลิด?

Without the mai ehk I'd simply assume it's contrarian application of 'in a ruined state' but the mai ehk makes me suspect it's a farang-ising of เลิด, as in the case of /shan/ (no Thai spelling exists) for ฉัน -- in other words making the assumption that /r/ sounds more 'farang' than /l/, and that adding a mai ehk implieds skewing the tone (in what direction? can't tell!) as a 'farang' Thai speaker might do.

Thanks for the spelling corrections - I only hear these words in speech so I just copied down Chanchaos spellings straight off.

เจ๋ง is the word they always use in subtitles of movies for "cool" and sometimes "sweet" or "great" as well, but I very rarely hear it used in everyday life.

I think (but I am far from sure) the mai eek in เริ่ด is supposed to shorten the vowel sound, actually. Could be that the same thing is at play here as with "man-s"... When my friends pronounce " เริ่ด " it's with an exaggerated roo reua and a very abrupt and short vowel... any more thoughts?

[chanchao]

> Thanks for the spelling corrections - I only hear these

> words in speech so I just copied down Chanchaos

> spellings straight off.

And I copied it straight out of the MSN Messenger window. I've actually noticed this before that many Thai people make mistakes with tone markers on slang words, mostly I guess because they're mostly not (proper) written language. Often I see tone markers appearing that are just wrong, or not even 'allowed', like mai tree and mai + on low class consonants.

Cheers,

Chanchao

[gisele]

My university students tell me:

yodyeam

is what they say to express something is cool, great, excellent.

[sabaijai]

I think (but I am far from sure) the mai eek in เริ่ด is supposed to shorten the vowel sound, actually. Could be that the same thing is at play here as with "man-s"... When my friends pronounce " เริ่ด " it's with an exaggerated roo reua and a very abrupt and short vowel... any more thoughts?

I think you're probably right, now that I think about it. The mai ehk is probably being borrowed from a similar context discussed in another thread, where a stop final following a mid-class consonant with a long vowel means the word is pronounced as if it contained a short vowel. Of course the mai ehk here is completely out of context as that rule doesn't exist for low-class consonants such as ร.

At any rate it's pronounced as a short vowel so that must be what it's used for. This is unlike the ส in มันส์ versus มัน which as far as I can tell are pronounced the same way.

My wife confirms that the slang เริ่ด is almost exclusively used by kathoei-s and teenage girls.

My university students tell me:

yodyeam

is what they say to express something is cool, great, excellent.

As with สุดยอด, I wouldn't really call this slang (though that's up to you) as these words have been in Thai dictionaries for a long time, appear in all sorts of non-slang contexts. ยอด simply means 'top' or 'peak' and เยี่ยม means 'great' (in the typical modern American sense).

At any rate, to me ยอดเยี่ยม is more the equivalent of 'great' or 'excellent' (American) or 'brilliant' (British) in their respective colloquial meanings, rather than 'cool', but I guess it's similar.

Then again one person's colloquial is another person's slang ...

Edited October 6, 2004 by sabaijai

[meuok]

Also แจ๋ว the same usage by วัยรุ่น as เจ๋ง