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.
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For your Korean kitchen vocabulary:
1 큰(big) 술(spoon)-1 tbsp,1 작은(small) 술(spoon)-1 tsp. 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.– SydneyMar 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.
