- 하수/고수 (and 중수 which I’ve heard less often) are old terms used to refer to the level of skill of a person or level of strategy. Could be used to describe the skill level of a Go(바둑) player, or skill of fighters in a traditional martial arts-themed literature (무협지). Martial arts literature has tended to take itself a bit seriously (even though they are describing fictional skills and mythical beings), and they use an absolute fuckton of superlatives to invite interest to the story and its character, so to lean into martial arts literature jargon invites some humor. These terms made their way into the internet (more to the DC인사이드-like bulletin board cultures), and also intermingled back and forth into gaming culture. (It started off by gamers using it to describe each other’s skill, and then some Korean games actively adopted the terminology as part of their official jargon, albeit with a light sense of ironic humor given that it has one origin foot in martial arts literature)
- 평민 is plebeian. The normal historically-proper context for 평민 should be among other medieval social class-describing words like 천민, 양반/귀족. But a self-deprecating type of humor that made the rounds online often used 평민 to deprecate oneself as “lowly/dumb/humble origins man”. Using the word “plebeian” in a modern society where medieval class system is no longer around, is completely off-context. It’s the wrong context. Because it’s so wrong, using it is funny. Because it’s funny, its caught on in some internet circles, again usually bulletin board cultures, and then onto gaming subcultures, to refer to gaming skill level.
- 지존 is martial arts literature jargon that is used to refer to a person at the very top of some hierarchy. For example, the founder of the dual-wielding rogue stealth fighters. Or the world champion of ice magic. Idk. It’s a word that is the culmination of the vibe of martial arts lit, just piling big words upon words to make readers feel like they are reading something exciting. This word also made it into the internet, and the sheer exageration of what the word implies made it an instant best-seller in online humor. Supposedly some elementary school children will use the word unironically to claim that they are the very creme de la creme in something (maybe Pokemon skills). Then, laughing at these supposed elementary school children, adults will use the word ironically to pretend to do child-speak and either self-deprecate themselves or point out their opponent’s lack of humility.
- 초인 does not belong to the above words. It just means “super human”. in Nietze’s Zaraturstra, the Ubermenschen is translated in Korean as 초인. I assume the person who made this chart just threw it on to fill the 7 levels. Being next to 지존, it’s somewhat adequate to be there.
- Again, 겁 has nothing to do with the other words, and it’s borrowing from the neologism “겁나게 맵다”, which just means “it’s scary spicy” (very very spicy), and the person tried to make it into a noun like the other 6 words, and wrote 겁. Again, probably added to the pile to complete the set of 7 levels.
In summary, the restaurant owner who came up with this chart is trying to say “I’m very conversant with you young people’s online subculture and your jargons (I might even be one of y’all), and I’m funny”.
There doesn’t exist an agreed-upon chart in which these 7 words go in order. For example, 하수, 중수, 고수 should be in that order since those three constitute a set, but 평민 could be over or under 중수. likewise, nothing tells us whether 지존 or 초인 should be higher up. And 겁 just doesn’t belong there. Or people could come up with more funny words (making reference to subcultures that some young people may be familiar with) to add on here: 핵주먹, 슈퍼사이언인4, 햏자, 태양권, 아햏햏, etc. At the end it’s just a bunch of words that generally mean “strong as hell” and arbitrarily given an order to go on the restaurant menu.
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