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Revision as of 00:58, 11 April 2015 by 72.192.99.253 (talk) (Added League of Legends for widely known use of the term in the game.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)| Gosu | |
| Hangul | 고수 |
|---|---|
| Hanja | 高手 |
| Revised Romanization | Gosu |
| McCune–Reischauer | Kosu |
Gosu (고수) is a Korean term used to refer to a highly skilled person. In computer gaming the term is usually used to refer to a person highly skilled in multiplayer games like StarCraft, Warcraft III, DotA (RTS/RPG), Diablo II (RPG), Counter-Strike (FPS), League of Legends (MOBA) and others. The term was adopted by gaming communities in many countries because of a large South Korean presence in online gaming communities.
Origin
The origin of the term is from hanja/hanzi: 高手, literally "high hand", also meaning pro or highly skilled at something, is used for a person with skill, usually in martial arts or in the game of go. In the dialect of the Gyeongnam province, gosu also has the meaning of "leader".
Related terms
Though not as popular, there are also several other commonly used Korean words for describing gamers with various skill levels. Joongsu (hangul: 중수, hanja: 中手, literally "middle hand") stands for "a moderately good player", hasu (hangul: 하수, hanja: 下手, literally "low hand") for "a poor player" or "a person with no skill" and chobo (hangul: 초보, hanja: 初步, literally "first step") for "a novice player". Hasu and chobo are the same skill level, but chobo is disrespectful or derogatory (whereas hasu is not). The English equivalent to chobo would be "noob" or "scrub" and hasu would be "beginner". Chobo is sometimes used by English speakers in the above disrespectful or derogatory manner, especially in the StarCraft 2 community.
Synonyms
See also
Notes
- BBC News: South Korea's gaming addicts
- Gosu (고수) entry in Korean language thesaurus
- Gosu (고수) entry in Korean language thesaurus