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<http://mainichi.jp/life/kimochi/archive/news/2012/20120205ddn013070029000c.html>

The article above, about how a girl wants to be loved, is entitled

> 愛され系

I am wondering which definition of 系 this is, and how best to understand it
and translate it into English. My friend gave the unwieldy "Being Loved Type",
while I proposed "System of being loved" (a direct translation?), but maybe
"Method of being loved" or "How I want to be loved" works. What do you think?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-06T03:12:13.977
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2023-01-14T02:31:18.113
2023-01-14T02:31:18.113
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question
translation words slang suffixes
Defining a particular 系
As you see, the article also mentions 美人系 and 可愛い系.

In casual speech, the Japanese sometimes divide the attractiveness of
girls/women into categories like

> 美人系 The beautiful type
>
> 可愛い系 The cute type
>
> セクシー系 The sexy type

'愛され系' is not typically heard (and this is probably why the article is using
「」 around it), but it seems that this girl created this category to categorize
her own attractiveness as well, namely as 'someone that is easy to approach,
that people feel comfortable talking to'.

So 系 here definitely means 'type'.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-06T03:27:18.130
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2012-02-06T03:27:18.130
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
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answer
This usage of `系` is a recent slang (from about 1980s) initiated by the
commedian duo とんねるず, particularly in a TV show called ねるとん紅鯨団. It is one of
the various hedge words that young generation prefer. It means 'the ... kind'.
The most popular words are `体育会系` 'people who joined a club activity at school
that belongs to the 体育会 "association of athletic-related clubs" ',
`[汗]{かん}キツ系` 'someone who stings like sweat' (汗きつ 'severe sweat' is a rhyme
with [柑]{かん}[橘]{きつ}). It is often used for mentioning an attribute of a
person, but it does not necessarily have to be about a person. Unlike what
dainichi writes, it was used more often to classify boys/men rather than
girls/women.

I don't know why, but young (and not-so-well educated) people use unnecessary
hedge words all over the place in Japan as well as in other countries. Other
examples are: `...みたいな`, `...的`. Incidentally, many of these words were
introduced by とんねるず. In America, these kinds of people insert the word `like`
all over the place in a sentence, which started in San Fernando Valley,
California.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-06T04:48:59.683
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2012-02-08T18:32:58.417
2012-02-08T18:32:58.417
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answer