Japanese コ上 meaning in English


I've perused many sites and have found "コ上," but if I hit translate, I get
"co-on," a term I am not familiar with. Is this a Japanese term with no
English equivalent?

I'm attempting to read a manga and this phrase pops up twice and has me
completely baffled. Below are the contexts in which I found them. Any help
would be much appreciated.

> オレらより１ **コ上** なんだけど  
>  海外行ってる間の  
>  単位取得で

and

> １ **コ上** の先輩に聞いたんだけど  
>  留学先で仲間と会社設立して  
>  すんごい儲けたんだって




I think the reason you aren't finding it is that you're parsing wrong.

You should split it as 1コ and then 上. And for this コ, you can think of it as
the kanji [個]{こ}, which is one of the most generic counter words in Japanese.
See [the Wikipedia article on Japanese counter
word](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_counter_word) and
[ウィキペディア「日本語の助数詞」](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8A%A9%E6%95%B0%E8%A9%9E#.E6.97.A5.E6.9C.AC.E8.AA.9E.E3.81.AE.E5.8A.A9.E6.95.B0.E8.A9.9E).

１個上 in this case means 1 level above.

So:

> オレらより１コ上なんだけど

= he's one [year/grade] above us but ...

> １コ上の先輩に聞いたんだけど ...

= I heard it from the _sempai_ one year above us but ...

* * *

As per the comment, this can only be used for comparatives, like 1個上, 2コ下, ...

If you want to say the year directly, you would say 一年生, 二年生




I think the reason you aren't finding it is that you're parsing wrong.

You should split it as 1コ and then 上. And for this コ, you can think of it as
the kanji [個]{こ}, which is one of the most generic counter words in Japanese.
See [the Wikipedia article on Japanese counter
word](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_counter_word) and
[ウィキペディア「日本語の助数詞」](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8A%A9%E6%95%B0%E8%A9%9E#.E6.97.A5.E6.9C.AC.E8.AA.9E.E3.81.AE.E5.8A.A9.E6.95.B0.E8.A9.9E).

１個上 in this case means 1 level above.

So:

> オレらより１コ上なんだけど

= he's one [year/grade] above us but ...

> １コ上の先輩に聞いたんだけど ...

= I heard it from the _sempai_ one year above us but ...

* * *

As per the comment, this can only be used for comparatives, like 1個上, 2コ下, ...

If you want to say the year directly, you would say 一年生, 二年生

