When people use ざっくり？


I recently heard my colleagues use **ざっくり** which I haven't heard before. When
I look it up in dictionary it translates to 'roughly; approximately; loosely'
or 'deeply (cut or split)' - very different meanings.

Could anyone kindly explain in what situations people usually use it and which
meaning is the most common?




Both meanings are common. To me, those two meanings are actually closely
related.

ざっくり or ザクッ is primarily an onomatopoeia for the coarse "friction" noise
produced when you deeply cut fiber-rich objects (cabbages, pumpkins, thick
cloths, etc), trample snow/gravel, or dig in the soil with a shovel. You can
hear typical ざっくり sounds in [this
video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf9pDbMCb9Q). (By the way, how do you
describe this sound in English? I'm not sure, but maybe "zap" or "crack"?) We
also say ざくざく when such a noise is made in rapid succession.

So the ざく sound is basically a fairly rough noise. By extension,
ざく/ざっくり(と)/ざくっと by itself started to gain the sense of roughness/coarseness.

  * ざく切りにする to cut something into chunks (in cooking)
  * ざっくりと編んだセーター roughly knitted sweater
  * ざっくりとした説明 a rough explanation
  * ざっくり10万円 roughly 100 thousand yen

If I remember correctly, this usage was a little humorous and slangy in
several decades ago, but now it has become commonplace.




Both meanings are common. To me, those two meanings are actually closely
related.

ざっくり or ザクッ is primarily an onomatopoeia for the coarse "friction" noise
produced when you deeply cut fiber-rich objects (cabbages, pumpkins, thick
cloths, etc), trample snow/gravel, or dig in the soil with a shovel. You can
hear typical ざっくり sounds in [this
video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf9pDbMCb9Q). (By the way, how do you
describe this sound in English? I'm not sure, but maybe "zap" or "crack"?) We
also say ざくざく when such a noise is made in rapid succession.

So the ざく sound is basically a fairly rough noise. By extension,
ざく/ざっくり(と)/ざくっと by itself started to gain the sense of roughness/coarseness.

  * ざく切りにする to cut something into chunks (in cooking)
  * ざっくりと編んだセーター roughly knitted sweater
  * ざっくりとした説明 a rough explanation
  * ざっくり10万円 roughly 100 thousand yen

If I remember correctly, this usage was a little humorous and slangy in
several decades ago, but now it has become commonplace.

