えげつない

えげつない
i-adjective
nasty; vulgar; unscrupulous
vulgarslangbusinesscolloquialdescriptive
Conjugation
AffirmativeNegative
Presentえげつないえげつなくない
Pastえげつなかったえげつなくなかった
て formえげつなくてえげつなくなくて
Adverbialえげつなく
Conditional ばえげつなければえげつなくなければ
Conditional たらえげつなかったらえげつなくなかったら
1. nasty; vulgar; in bad taste
Crude, crass, or lacking refinement.
えげつない冗談(じょうだん)()な。
Don't make such vulgar jokes.
えげつない(はなし)やめてくれ
Stop with the nasty talk.
It's wrong to post vulgar photos online.
2. unscrupulous; ruthless; extreme
Going too far in a negative way; having no moral limits.
That's an unscrupulous way of doing business.
The price is outrageously high.
Consumers are angry about that company's outrageous price hikes.

Etymology

Originally Kansai dialect, now widely used in casual speech throughout Japan.

Usage

A strongly negative word used to describe:

  • Vulgar or tasteless behavior or jokes (sense 1)
  • Ruthless or shameless business practices (sense 2)
  • Extreme amounts — price, difficulty, quantity (sense 2)

In sense 2 the word has drifted toward a pure intensifier, close to English "insane" or "brutal", and in young people's speech it can even be mildly admiring:

Register

Casual and colloquial, and blunt enough to sound rude if said about someone present. Avoid it in formal speech and in writing.

Similar words

  • 下品(げひん) - vulgar, coarse (matches sense 1 only)
  • (きたな) - dirty; also "underhanded" (closer to sense 2)
  • エグい - slang variant covering the same range