> Both Westerners and overtly Western things were referred to as bata-kusai, "kusai" being Japanese for "stink."
Although that is a literal meaning, -kusai functions as a suffix which creates an adjective from a noun indicating that something has the quality of that noun, and that the quality is undesirable. In this role, it doesn't indicate a smell.
It basically means "-like" or "-ish", with a negative slant.
For instance "ao" refers to the blue/green color and also to an unripe state of plants or immature state. "aokusai" refers to a raw vegetable taste or smell, like cut grass, or something unripe for consumption; also to an inexperienced person, greenhorn.
"inakakusai": unsophisticated hick, country bumpkin.
Although that is a literal meaning, -kusai functions as a suffix which creates an adjective from a noun indicating that something has the quality of that noun, and that the quality is undesirable. In this role, it doesn't indicate a smell.
It basically means "-like" or "-ish", with a negative slant.
For instance "ao" refers to the blue/green color and also to an unripe state of plants or immature state. "aokusai" refers to a raw vegetable taste or smell, like cut grass, or something unripe for consumption; also to an inexperienced person, greenhorn.
"inakakusai": unsophisticated hick, country bumpkin.
"mendoukusai": troublesome, bothersome.
"usokusai": seemingly false, contrived, questionable. ("uso" -> lie).
"oshiroikusai": (it. smelling of face powder) coquettish.