I am having some electrical work done on the house, and learned that a fusebox in Korean is called a '두꺼비집' or 'toad house'.
Why is this? It seems like like it should be something to do with the shape or appearance, but I couldn't find any good explanation.
I'm not entirely sure what type of fuse, fuse holder, or fusebox is called a '두꺼비집' - I suspect the usage was coined before the modern RCD designs.
Any pictures showing what's meant would be great!
According to an article in Chosun Daily, this is why it's called like that:
... 큼직한 스위치 모양이 엎드린 두꺼비 등 같아 그런 이름이 붙었다. http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2015/09/22/2015092204054.html
which can be translated as:
"The origin of the name is due to the appearance of the large switch - it looked like a back of a toad facing down."
Maybe the photo in the article would satisfy your curiosity. The upper one is the older one:
and below is a newer one.
Song : 두껍아 두껍아 헌집 주께 새집 다오 (A). Toad toad. I will give an old house and you would give me a new house.
Like this song, toad is familiar to us, because it represents a luck.
Cover knife switch : We call it toad house before (nowadays we do not use) because its shape is like toad's sitting.
But there are another stories : When Korea use a electronic light at the first time, it is magic to us. So we call it 도깨비 불 (ghost's fire) so that 도깨비집 is changed into 두꺼비집, because their pronunciation is similar.
Or, the company of electronic light use some mark (or symbol picture) whose shape is like a toad. Accordingly, we call it 두꺼비 집.
Origin of the word toad : 두껍다 (be thick) : 저 책은 두껍다. The book is thick.
Note that there is a story about princess who do not smile (As far as I know, there is a similar western story).
Here we say that she have a thick face. (그녀는 얼굴이 두껍다).
Example : 그는 낯두껍다 - (B). He has a thick face.
Meaning : He obtain a food from other people and never give. He do not work and enjoy other's result. In this time, we can use the expression (B).
두꺼비 집 = toad house :
두꺼비집 (heed : no space)
1) Cover knife switch
2) Singing a song (A), children make a house with sand.
3) pocket
4) Consider a long room. So we put 장지문 (=a paper sliding door) so that we have two rooms. Here, when we open the door, the door is putted in some space, which is called 두꺼비집.
