Brilliant, wild, crazy, mind-blowing, scandalous; dodgy, dangerous. Derived from the exclamation атас (watch out! / look out!), which originated in Soviet criminal and prison slang as a warning signal for an approaching guard or police officer, likely connected to the German Achtung. Combined with the adjectival suffix -ный, it evolved in youth and street slang during the late Soviet era (especially the 1980s) into a highly expressive modifier. It has two main dimensions: first, positively or neutrally, to describe something mind-blowing, extraordinary, wild, or legendary (это был атасный концерт — “that was a awesome concert”); second, negatively, to describe a risky, chaotic, or scandalous situation (ситуация сложилась просто атасная — “the situation became completely dodgy”).
Нашла @NadinProkopik атасного жениха,а она еще выпендривается #ужос
Found @NadinProkopik a brilliant fiancé, and she’s still capricious #wtf
(zhurvll @ twitter.com, 01/2018)
