how offensive is 지질하다?
I have picked this one up from a few of korean dramas. Yet when i asked one of my korean buddies, he said this actually would construe as offensive language even among close friends.

Of course, different people from various background have different feeling towards certain words but I am trying to establish if this is one of those landmine words that I should basically eliminate from my own vocabulary.

In term of offensive scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being the worse, how would an average korean rate this word?

Question

how offensive is  지질하다?
I have picked this one up from a few of korean dramas.  Yet when i asked one of my korean buddies, he said this actually would construe as offensive language even among close friends.

Of course, different people from various background have different feeling towards certain words but I am trying to establish if this is one of those landmine words that I should basically eliminate from my own vocabulary.

In term of offensive scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being the worse, how would an average korean rate this word?

Answer

I wouldn't say it's vulgar (because you hear them on TV, broadcasting..etc), but it's definitely hurtful. Because a 찌질한 person (or a 찌질이) is basically a loser who has no life. So if i were to rate this word on the scale from 1 to 10... it really depends. It's not a cuss word, you hear them in public, so it's not a word to avoid like ㅆㅂ.. or ㄱㅅㄲ.....  So it's not even 5. But if you're talking about hurtfulness then it's definitely 8-10.

Answer

Yes, it is very offensive expression. 찌질하다 means "very timid, stupid, foolish, ugly, selfish, not very smart, not very tidy, not very clean....." it is really hard you know, if I rate the word, it would be 8~9? (or 10 for young generation I think.)

8 for this : 너 찌질하게 왜 그래? 
10 for this : 아, 저 찌질한 놈

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