Badass or Bad ass

[powerchisper]

Hello friends:

I've heard this many times , and I have no translation for it yet.

More or less I understand it in my "internal forum" , but sometimes happens that the same word can be used for good or for bad.

Dave Mustaine once said " you can make music and be a badass , or you can make music and be a nice guy"

Here I understand as "cabrón" or "pocavida"...I can't think of "culo malo" as anything in Spanish.

Coud you tell me some different examples please ??

Thank you for your cooperation ( Robocop )

[poli]

It's African American slang. It can mean good in a bad way, like being subversive with good intentions or ugly but sexy. It can also mean evil depending on context. It should be one word. In two words, it just means culo malo.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

My American Slang Dictionary, by Robert Chapman, has a warning that it's a bad word and gives:

Badass: A belligerent and worthless person, a malicious or deceitful person, a habitual criminal, a bum.

I'd say that's just someone you don't want to meet.

[chileno]

Escrito originalmente por AngelicaDeAlquezar

My American Slang Dictionary, by Robert Chapman, has a warning that it's a bad word and gives:

Badass: A belligerent and worthless person, a malicious or deceitful person, a habitual criminal, a bum.

I'd say that's just someone you don't want to meet.

Correct. Now consider the following, including the emoticon.

"Pero que malita eres... "

[poli]

Cabrón is a word for SOB or MF. Depending on the country the person is from, it can be a fighting word or a joking word. That's why it's good to avoid using it.

[Awaken]

Always badass, not bad ass.

I would say in modern day times, it usually is a good thing.

"That motorcycle is so badass."

or "That guy is such a badass" - It is slang and it usually means "cool" or "awesome" with a lean towards powerful, violent, strong, dangerous, etc...

"Jason Statham is such a badass in Transporter"

If you have seen that movie, it might give you some context.

[Glen]

Escrito originalmente por powerchisper

Here I understand as "cabrón" or "pocavida"...I can't think of "culo malo" as anything in Spanish.

Coud you tell me some different examples please ??

This may be a regionalism but there is a well-known Major League baseball pitcher from Venezuela who has EL CARTELUA, which supposedly means the same thing there, embroidered on his glove.

[powerchisper]

...se me ocurre una equivalencia : "de la hostia"

badass club = bareto de la hostia
badass motorcycle = moto de la hostia ..

[JPablo]

También: "de cuidado" "de mucho cuidado" y algo más malsonantes: "de coj*nes" "de p*ta madre!"

[Mr.What]

In my recent experience badass is almost always used in irony. Opposite meaning. Literally bad (mal) ass (usually refers to butt, not donkey -- posterior), bad-jerk-person. However, this term is almost ALWAYS used to mean something actually good. Micheal Jordan is one badass basketball player. Salma Hayek is one badass actress.

However, often has some illicit connotations. Be careful around that guy, he is one badass street fighter.
That girl is one badass hacker. She cracked the security on by browser and stole my passwords.

Is there a similar meaning for cabrón? Tricky for me. A goat is usually a bad thing in common English. Like a sacrificial lamb. A pawn thatóó can be expended.

I recently saw it used in Spanish more like the English slang version of badass.
A person was looking for a "cabrón como PC". (Sorry, I don't even know how to type accents... native English speaker here...) He wanted what we might call in English a "badass hacker" to help with some gray-market PC issues.

See Awaken's response. Literally a bad person, but current slang use is almost positive, and ironic. Current USA use, more of a synonym of "master"