Does 가락 have any meaning by itself? Are 손가락 and 발가락 related to 숟가락 and 잣가락? I can imagine 숟가락 meaning 'round finger (extension)'and 젓가락 meaning 'long finger (extension)'. At least I'll use that to remember this set of words. Do 숟 and 젓 have any meaning by themselves? Google Translate translates 숟 as 'spoon', in which case why is 숟가락 necessary? (I don't want to rely on Google Translate.)
2 Answers
-가락 (suffix) denotes bar-like shape that is long and thin, such as fingers. It can also be used as a unit word that can count objects in that shape.
- 국수 한 가락 (a single thread of noodle)
Naturally, 손가락 and 발가락 represent those bar-shaped parts of 손 and 발.
Interestingly, it is often used to count songs. This 가락 is a homonym that means a melody.
- 노래 한 가락 (a song)
- 구슬픈 가락 (a plaintive melody)
Now regarding 숟가락 and 젓가락, 가락s here are from the first meaning above (bar-shaped object).
숟가락 is combination of 술 and -가락. 술 is an old Korean word for spoons that is no longer used today (see below and K._
's comment). You might wonder why by combining 술 and 가락 we get *숟*가락. This is because of a phonological transformation called 사잇소리. (see below)
Finally, 젓가락 is 저(箸)+-가락. Unlike 술, 저 here is a Chinese word for chopsticks. Again, see this link on 사잇소리 (specifically, 사이시옷 part), if you wonder why we have ㅅ between 저 and -가락.
edited: Today, 술 as spoon is used only as a unit word when measuring uncountable substance by a spoon.
- 밥 한 술 (a spoonful of rice)
edited: It is not 사잇소리 phenomenon that 술+가락 becomes 숟가락. There are just some compound words where ㄹ at the end of predecessor becomes ㄷ sound. See 한글맞춤법 (article 29) for more examples like this.
-
For your Korean kitchen vocabulary:
1 큰(big) 술(spoon)-1 tbsp,1 작은(small) 술(spoon)-1 tsp. Commented Mar 6, 2018 at 8:35 -
1Thank you for your explanation. Some Australian Indigenous languages have unit words, and songs (traditionally) and cassette tapes (in modern times) were counted using that word.– SydneyCommented Mar 18, 2018 at 6:37
(1) 손 - hand, 손가락 - finger
가락 - stick.
( off topic : Here my curiosity is about chop stick. chop stick does not contain any meaning for meal )
From three word and their relations, 손가락 is plausible.
(2) 수저 : Tool for eating. Usually, it is union of spoon and chop stick.
(3) As like hand, 수저가락 (not used in commonly. I introduce for explaining) indicates 숟가락 or 젓가락.
Conclusion : 손 <-> 수저, thumb, forefinger, ... <-> 숟가라, 젓가락
(4) Frequently, 수저 is used for indicating spoon.
