PK?

[uchihak]

xxx PK &&&

I see this term frequently on chinese language forums. Does anybody know what it means?

-thanks!

[gougou]

Literally, it is the abbreviation for player kill. It has become famous through the Chinese version of Idols, where it has been used as a name for the showdown between two similarly talented contestants (where, apparently, it stood for the less violent penalty kick).

On the web, it now refers to the discussion about which of xxx or &&& is better.

It's funny that you should ask now, I was just reading up on that this morning. Found the answer on 百度吧 or something.

EDIT: Chinese explanation here

Note that they say point kick instead of penalty kick...

[gato]

Yes, it's from penalty kick, the soccer term.

[roddy]

Interesting - I'd always assumed it was a mutated version of 'pick', with voters picking either contestant in the showdown. Wrong again, wrong again . .

[heifeng]

someone told me before cantonese for 淘汰!? I guess it's actually not from catonese, but the idea's kinda the same of getting eliminated...

[gato]

You can usually substitute PK with "vs." "roddy PK gougou" would mean the same thing as "roddy vs. gougou."

[geraldc]

I always thought the Cantonese 仆街 explanation was the most likely.

http://www.answers.com/topic/puk-kai

But I guess from the context, the Mandarin PK is different...

[wenhan]

Alright, so I searched the forums and saw a previous post on this exact word (PK) but that post didn't get a sufficient response. Could someone explain what this word means? I get the feeling it doesn't come from "penalty kick" and is probably derived from internet slang...I asked some Chinese people, they all new what it was but the explanations I got were a little hard to follow... And in what context is it used?

[Quest]

It's a mis-uage from internet gaming, Player Killing. It just means versus, or 1 to 1 competition.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_versus_Player