“Whoa! I found a four-leaf clover! It’s my lucky day!” “ヤバい!四つ葉のクローバー見つけた!ラッキー!” ( Yabai! Yotsuba no kuroobaa o mitsuketa! Rakkii!).You would be just as likely to say ヤバい!if you found an unexpected 20-dollar (or 2,000 yen) bill in your pocket as you would be if you forgot your homework. It can also be used as an exclamation of general delight or a positive surprise. We mentioned before that ヤバいcan be used as an expletive. “Amazing! He just hit a home run!” “ヤバい!ホームラン打った!” ( Yabai! Hoomuran utta!).On the positive side of things, yabai is often used to describe things that are “ Amazing! Super! Great! Examples: “OMG, I stepped in chewing gum!” “やべー、ガムに踏んだ!” ( Yabee, gamu ni funda!).“Crap! I left my wallet at home!” “ヤバい!財布を家に忘れてしまった!” ( Yabai! Saifu o ie ni wasurete shimatta!).If you locked your key in the car, stepped in dog poop, or left the oven on back home, you might be saying ヤバい! when you realize what went down. It usually comes at a moment of unpleasant realization. ヤバい is often used as a general expletive (although no particularly foul-mouthed). Young people like to call things they don’t like or understand “crazy.” It’s the same in Japan! You can sometimes hear kids using this word to talk about their parents or friends-and it’s not always a compliment. “Those waves are dangerous!” “あの波がヤバいぞ!” ( Ano nami ga yabai zo!). If you’re trying to warn someone about a danger or possible problem, you can shout, ヤバい! Examples: In line with its original kanji, ヤバい can refer to something dangerous or unsafe. The definition will change depending on when and why you say ヤバい! So, what does ヤバい mean? Let’s look at the different meanings of yabai. It’s no longer used to write ヤバい, so we recommend avoiding using kanji for this particular word. That’s the kanji used in modern Japanese for 危ない ( abunai), meaning danger. Unbeknownst to even most Japanese people, however, ヤバい does a kanji! Holding true to its roots, the old kanji for ヤバい was written like so: The word ヤバい is always written in either katakana or hiragana. This happened in the 90s when the next generation of young people tweaked ヤバい to mean something more like crazy, awesome, or cool. Either way, it maintained its role in relatively hip and youthful Japanese vernacular older Japanese people don’t often use ヤバい unless they’re talking about something dangerous. It had a definitively negative implication, usually meaning bad, gross, or dangerous. However, just like the English expression “bad,” ヤバい also shifted into a word that could be, well, bad and good. ヤバい become a common word used by young people in the 1980s. In those days, “ヤバい” meant ill-mannered, improper, or even unsafe. It might have then moved into the law-abiding vernacular and become a phrase used to warn common folk about thieves and scammers. That’s right ヤバい was a word probably created by thieves and scammers in the Edo Period. The most commonly agreed-upon explanation is that it originated in Japan’s ancient underworld. Even though the origin of yabai is a mystery, there are varying theories about the history of the word ヤバい.
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