ダサい (dasai)

What it means

1. 1.

   Naff; uncool; trying and failing. Of clothes, a design, a name, a gesture — anything that misses the mark stylistically.

Examples with translations

• そのネクタイちょっとダサくない？

  That tie is a bit of a shocker, isn't it?

• 言い訳するのはダサいよ。

  Making excuses is a bad look.

Where it comes from

Widely said to come from 田舎 (inaka), 'the countryside', via a joking reading of 埼玉 as 'da-saitama' — Tokyo's condescension towards its neighbouring prefecture. The derivation is repeated everywhere and has never been solidly evidenced; treat it as a good story rather than a fact.

First attested: 1970s

Other forms

Romanised as:

dasai