Gosu () is a

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

term used to refer to a highly skilled person. In

computer gaming A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual feedback from a display device, mos ...

the term is usually used to refer to a person who dominated games like ''

StarCraft ''StarCraft'' is a military science fiction media franchise created by Chris Metzen and James Phinney and owned by Blizzard Entertainment. The series, set in the beginning of the 26th century, centers on a galactic struggle for dominance amon ...

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Counter-Strike ''Counter-Strike'' (''CS'') is a series of multiplayer tactical first-person shooter video games, in which opposing teams attempt to complete various objectives. The series began on Windows in 1999 with the release of the first game, '' Counte ...

'', ''

Tekken is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting games developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment (formerly Namco). The franchise also includes film and print adaptations. The main games in the series follow the events ...

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Warcraft III ''Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos'' is a high fantasy real-time strategy computer video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment released in July 2002. It is the second sequel to '' Warcraft: Orcs & Humans'', after '' Warcraft II: Ti ...

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Diablo II ''Diablo II'' is a 2000 action role-playing game developed by Blizzard North and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, Classic Mac OS, and OS X. The game, with its dark fantasy and horror themes, was conceptualized and des ...

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DotA ''Dota'' is a series of strategy video games. The series began in 2003 with the release of ''Defense of the Ancients'' (''DotA''), a fan-developed multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) custom map for the video game ''Warcraft III: Reign of Ch ...

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League of Legends ''League of Legends'' (''LoL'', commonly referred to as ''League'', is a multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by ''Defense of the Ancients'', a Mod (video games), custom map for ''Warcraf ...

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Heroes of the Storm ''Heroes of the Storm'' is a multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. Announced at BlizzCon 2010, it was released on June 2, 2015 for macOS and Windows. The game features various crossover ...

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Overwatch ''Overwatch'' (abbreviated as OW) is a multimedia franchise centered on a series of multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment. ''Overwatch (video game), Overwatch'' was released in 2016 with a success ...

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Overwatch 2 ''Overwatch 2'' is a 2023 first-person shooter video game by Blizzard Entertainment. As a sequel and replacement to the 2016 hero shooter ''Overwatch'', the game included new gamemodes and a reduction in team size from six to five. The game is ...

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Apex Legends ''Apex Legends'' is a 2019 Battle royale game, battle royale-hero shooter video game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts, set in the same science fiction universe as Respawn's ''Titanfall'' series. It is offered ...

'' and others. The term was adopted by gaming communities in many countries because of a large

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

n presence in online gaming communities.

Origin

The term is

Sino-Korean vocabulary Sino-Korean vocabulary or Hanja-eo () refers to Korean words of Chinese origin. Sino-Korean vocabulary includes words borrowed directly from Chinese, as well as new Korean words created from Chinese characters, and words borrowed from Sino-Japan ...

, and

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...

s in other

East Asian language The languages of East Asia belong to several distinct language families, with many common features attributed to interaction. In the Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area, Chinese varieties and languages of southeast Asia share many areal fea ...

s that feature the same

hanja Hanja (; ), alternatively spelled Hancha, are Chinese characters used to write the Korean language. After characters were introduced to Korea to write Literary Chinese, they were adapted to write Korean as early as the Gojoseon period. () ...

(

高 Radical 189 or radical tall () meaning "" is one of the 8 Kangxi radicals (214 radicals in total) composed of 10 strokes. In the ''Kangxi Dictionary'', there are 34 characters (out of 49,030) to be found under this radical. is also the 191st ...

手 Radical 64 or radical hand () meaning "hand" is one of the 34 Kangxi radicals (214 radicals in total) composed of 4 Stroke (CJK character), strokes. When appearing as a left-side component, this radical is almost always written as (notable exc ...

, literally "high hand") include ''gāoshǒu'' (

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

, "expert; ace; master"), and ''cao thủ'' (

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...

, "skilled person; master"). In the dialect of the

Gyeongnam South Gyeongsang Province (, ) is a province in the southeast of South Korea. The provincial capital is at Changwon. It is adjacent to the major metropolitan center and port of Busan. The UNESCO World Heritage Site Haeinsa, a Buddhist temple that ...

province, ''gosu'' also has the meaning of "leader". Figuratively meaning pro or highly skilled at something, ''gosu's'' pre-computing usage usually referred to

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defence; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; ...

or the game of go.

Related terms

Though not as popular, there are also several other commonly used Korean words for describing gamers with various skill levels. ''Jungsu'' () stands for "a moderately good player", ''hasu'' () for "a poor player" or "a person with no skill" and ''

chobo ''Newbie'' is a slang term for a ''novice'', ''newcomer'', or somebody inexperienced in a given profession or activity. In particular, it may refer to a new user of computers, and often concerns Internet activity, such as online gaming or Li ...

'' () for "a novice player". Hasu and chobo are the same skill level, but hasu is disrespectful or derogatory (whereas chobo is not). The English equivalent to hasu would be "noob" or "scrub" and chobo would be "beginner" or "newbie".

Synonyms

* leet or 1337 *

Über ''Über'' (, sometimes written ''uber'' in English-language publications) is a German language word meaning "over", "above" or "across". It is an etymological twin with German ''ober'', and is a cognate (through Proto-Germanic) with English ...

Pro Pro is an abbreviation meaning "professional". Pro, PRO or variants thereof might also refer to: People * Miguel Pro (1891–1927), Mexican priest * Pro Hart (1928–2006), Australian painter * Mlungisi Mdluli (born 1980), South African ret ...

*Master

References

{{Reflist Korean words and phrases South Korean popular culture Video game culture Esports terminology