gua sha

See also: guāshā

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Mandarin 刮痧 (guāshā, literally “scrape sand”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɡwɑ ˈʃɑ/

Noun

gua sha (uncountable)

  1. A treatment used in traditional Chinese medicine involving repeated pressured strokes over the skin with a hard object thereby breaking surface capillaries and leaving light bruising, claimed to release unhealthy bodily matter.
    • 2024 March 26, Riley Farrell, “Inside looksmaxxing, the extreme cosmetic social media trend”, in BBC‎[1], archived from the original on 23 April 2024:
      Looksmaxxing attaches "scores" to aspects of male appearance, focusing particularly on jawline, muscularity and skin. Looksmaxxers aim to increase their scores via "softmaxxing" (such as using a gua sha, burning more calories than consumed, or moisturising) and "hardmaxxing" (such as steroid use, hair transplants, or cosmetic surgery).

Translations

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