Questions tagged [etymology]

Etymology is the history of the origin of words and phrases.

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5 answers
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Why is the Korean name 이 often Romanised as 'Lee'?

This was a question from the definition stage of this proposal Why is the Korean name 이 written as Lee in English?
user17915's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
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Etymology of '괜찮다'

The adjective '괜찮다' means: 형용사 (adjective) 별로 나쁘지 않고 보통 이상이다. Not bad and above average. When you look at the adjective '편찮다', you can know it is from another adjective '편하다' as '편찮다' is a ...
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9 votes
3 answers
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How to spot English loanwords and Hanja words in a text?

While studying Japanese, it's very helpful that nearly all words of foreign origin are marked by using katakana (a syllabary separate from the usual mix of hiragana and Chinese characters) and words ...
Dominik's user avatar
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9 votes
3 answers
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Origin of dictionary form (-다)

What is the origin of the basic -다 "dictionary" form for verbs and adjectives? Does it have any meaning on its own? Is it ever used in actual conversations or writing? There are forms that are similar ...
ryanbrainard's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
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Can I use 찮다 to express 지 않다

I refer to this question: Etymology of '괜찮다' So words like 귀찮다, 괜찮다, or 편찮다 are actually just the shortened form of 귀하지 않다, 괜하지 않다 and 편하지 않다. And the general rule is, 찮다 is the shortened ...
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