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I understand that キモい comes from 気持ち悪い and I have only heard it used by women. I am wondering if it is exclusively used by women like how ending sentences with わ or かしら is only used by women.

silvermaple
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russjohnson09
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    As istrasci writes, it is not feminine, but women might use it more often to classify and discriminate men than men do to women. –  Feb 14 '12 at 21:53

2 Answers2

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No. Many of my male friends in Osaka/Kansai use キモい, especially the emphatic キモッ!.

istrasci
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    Good observation. In fact, using the root of an adjective is not peculiar to this particular word, but is peculiar to the Kansai dialects: `短か!`, `さむ!`, `小さ!`, `くっさ!`. In Kansai, `きしょい` may also be used. –  Feb 14 '12 at 21:46
  • @sawa san Exactly~ (笑) Ah and we also say きっしょ!and ちっさ!(Do you say さぶ!in Kanto too?) –  Feb 15 '12 at 00:06
  • @Chocolate: If you mean さぶ as in when someone tells a lame joke, then I hear it used in Tokyo. What is きっしょ, though? – Questioner Feb 15 '12 at 00:19
  • @DaveMG san, Yes but we also use さぶ just to mean 寒い. きっしょ is the same as キモッ, but I think we use きっしょ more often in Kansai. –  Feb 15 '12 at 00:40
  • @Chocolate I think さぶ (and even さむ) is Kansai dialect. さぶいぼ is even more obviously Kansai dialect (とりはだ in standard dialect). –  Feb 15 '12 at 01:20
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I have heard university age males in Hokkaido use きもい in a very emphatic way.