8
votes
Accepted
Money Drinking Hippo? What is a 돈먹는하마?
It's a word play on 물먹는 하마, a very famous brand of moisture absorber (see picture).
[So the word play is that like this "water eating hippo" product absorbs water, the olympic stadiums in a post-...
- 7,352
7
votes
Etymology of the word 코끼리 (elephant)?
The derivation is likely to have to come from 길다. The linked Tweet states that 곻, being the attested form of 코, evolved with 길- and the general nominalising suffix 이 to form 고키리 (the form attested in ...
- 2,378
7
votes
Accepted
Which Korean country names originate from Japanese?
독일(獨逸) - Germany, from Japanese (ドイツ doitsu), ultimately from German Deutsch
화란(和蘭) - Netherlands, from Japanese (オランダ oranda), ultimately from Papiamento Hulanda
불란서(佛蘭西) - France, from Japanese (...
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5
votes
Are there many (or any) sports idioms in Korean?
There are not any 'idioms' regarding modern sports but there are some idioms regarding Korean traditional sports, such as 택견(also spelled 태껸) and 태권도. Here's an example:
딴죽을(딴지를) 걸다. To object; to ...
- 610
5
votes
Accepted
Why are fuseboxes called '두꺼비집' - 'toad houses'?
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 ...
- 748
4
votes
Accepted
Etymology of the word 코끼리 (elephant)?
second guess is right. it changed for long time but 코(nose) + 끼(was 길 which means length) + -이
It was 고키리 and currently changed to 코끼리, but same meaning.
1) ‘코끼리’는 ‘코가 긴 것, 코가 긴 짐승’이라는 뜻으로 ‘고ㅎ + 길-...
- 595
4
votes
Is the word '여보세요' ('hello?') related to the word '여보' ('darling')?
I have heard it claimed that 여보세요 is short for "여보 계세요?" (Is your 여보 there). However, I do not think this is the actual meaning of the phrase 여보세요. A 75 year old man with lots of gold teeth told me ...
- 3,934
4
votes
Is it true that -먹다 can be used to show that you did something bad? What's the origin of this meaning?
From Naver's online dictionary,
보조동사
(일부 동사 뒤에서 ‘-어 먹다’ 구성으로 쓰여) 앞말이 뜻하는 행동을 강조하는 말. 주로 그 행동이나 그 행동과 관련된
상황이 마음에 들지 않을 때 쓴다.
약속을 잊어 먹다 노예처럼 부려 먹다 종으로 부려 먹다 어원 : 먹다＜월인천강지곡(1447)＞ ...
- 2,954
4
votes
Accepted
Why does "브금" mean sound track?
Rather than literally meaning 'soundtrack', it seems to come from a meaning of 'background music'.
'BGM' can be an English abbreviation for BackGround Music, which transliterates to ㅂㄱㅁ→ ㅂㅡㄱㅡㅁ (with '...
- 13.5k
4
votes
Accepted
By frequency of actual usage, what percentage of the Korean language is 한자어?
Most sources report the percentage of vocabulary in dictionaries, and the figures range from 53% to 70% - this will really depend on the dictionary used to calculate the figure.
The running words ...
- 6,004
4
votes
How did the Hanja-rooted terms for sports such as '축구','야구', '농구' come into being?
football: foot is 축 in Hanja.
and ball is 구in hanja.
baseball:baseball is a ball played in field. and field is 야 in hanja.
and ball is 구in hanja.
basketball:basket is similar to box ...
- 457
4
votes
Accepted
What is shorted for 뭔?
무엇은 is a logical guess since 뭐 is short for 무엇, but it is wrong.
The reason 뭔 doesn't mean 무엇은 is likely because 무엇은 is a phrase almost never used in practice. If you are asking something phrasing it ...
- 1,224
3
votes
Accepted
Why does the number 0 (zero) not have its own Korean native numeral?
There is circumstantial evidence that the concept of zero did come to Korea from China: 19th century Korean mathematicians certainly possessed copies of the seminal 數書九章 Mathematical Treatise in Nine ...
- 2,378
3
votes
What foreign terms were "updated" in the past?
초밥 replaced 스시 (sushi, loaned from Japanese 寿司 = すし)
단무지 replaced 다꾸앙 (a form of pickled radish, from Japanese 沢庵 = たくわん / たくあん)
나무 젓가락 replaced 와리바시 (splittable wooden chopsticks, from Japanese 割り箸 = ...
- 2,378
3
votes
Is there a list of Korean words that were imported into Japanese?
Found good source. I am just reorganizing with some comments.
Original link : https://tip.daum.net/question/50543177 written in 2007
キムチ：김치
Kimchi
2. ビビンバ(ピビンバ라고도 씀）: 비빔밥
Bibimbob - food
ソジュ：소주
...
- 595
3
votes
What's the history of the how the word '빵', meaning 'bread', made its way into Korean?
According to 'National Institute of Korean Language', it's from Portuguese.
Portuguese > Japanese > Korean. You can get more information here : NIKL Korean vocabulary history search 빵
From that ...
- 41
3
votes
Accepted
Is the word '딴' related to 다르다?
According to the 표준국어대사전, the etymological origin of 딴 is:
ᄠᆞㄹ+ㄴ -> ᄠᆞㄴ -> 딴.
Given that the 아래 아 (ᆞ) often became ㅏ (hence its name 아래 아), and the fact there was a ㄹ in the original word, and ...
- 6,004
3
votes
Accepted
Is the word '여보세요' ('hello?') related to the word '여보' ('darling')?
여보 originated from 여기 보오 "look at here", and 여보세요, 여보시오 from "여기 보세요", "여기 보시오" respectively. They all mean "look at here", just differing by speech level.
The word was used in the early 20th ...
- 7,412
3
votes
Accepted
Meaning of 머슴살이 and origin?
The term '머슴살이' can be separated into two parts :
'머슴' and '살이'
머슴
The word '머슴' refers to a person who worked for the rich '양반's and farm owners in order to earn money for their living. ('양반' ...
- 171
3
votes
What does 꿀잠각 mean?
꿀, which means "honey", is often used as a (slang) prefix for something that is good or easy. 잠 is just "sleep". 각, which means "angle", is also a slang word for "...
- 694
3
votes
Accepted
What does 꿀잠각 mean?
1. 꿀잠
꿀잠--literally "honey sleep"--is a trendy way of saying for "a good sleep".
2. 각 (角)
각(角) is an abbreviation of 각도(角度) meaning "an angle".
Another translation for ...
- 1,224
3
votes
How often is “서바나” used to refer to Spain?
In modern Korean, "서바나" is barely used. It seems that most of younger Korean cannot notice what "서바나" is, whereas most of them know what and where "스페인" is.
It's kind of ...
- 131
3
votes
How often is “서바나” used to refer to Spain?
서반아 as Spain is rarely used, but 서반아어(Spanish language) is still fairly used; Especially in academic with a short form - 서어. SNU's Hispanic Language and Literature Department is 서어서문학과 in Korean, ...
- 31
2
votes
Accepted
What's the history of the how the word '빵', meaning 'bread', made its way into Korean?
During the age of "discovery", the Portuguese were the first Europeans (see 1542) who "explored" Japan from as early as mid-16th century, spreading many European cultural and scientific components and ...
- 1,149
2
votes
How exactly is 호롱호롱 an onomatopoeic word for the sound of mountain birds?
(1) Other sound similar to 호롱 :
호로록 = sound when a small bird takes off.
후루룩 = sound when we eat noodle or a bird takes off.
쪼로롱 : Let's sing with cute voice, for instance 쪼로롱.
쪼로롱 귀여운 목소리로 노래 불러요
...
- 3,041
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