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T U E S D AY, A U G U S T 2 0 , 2 0 1 3

ASK THE KOREAN HERE

Here are Some Korean Slang Terms

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Korean!

Dear Korean,
Does the Korean have a list of colorful Korean language slang?
Cactus McHarris
This is actually a pretty tough task, because the number of slang terms is
huge and the types of slang are ever-changing. For a comprehensive
overview, the Korean would recommend As Much As a Rat's Tail:
Korean Slang, a solid look of old and new slang expressions in Korean. In

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Search

C O N T R I B U T E TO A A K !
WIKI

See the List of AAK! Wiki

addition, KoreaBANG's glossary is a decent collection of the latest

Internet-slang in Korea.
But the Korean will not simply abdicate this post to book and website
recommendations. Although he could not possibly tally all the slang used
in Korean language, he can try listing at least a few of them in this space.
To that end, allow the Korean to re-introduce his all-Korean language
Twitter account: https://twitter.com/askakorean. The Korean decided
long ago that his Facebook account will be for English language content,
while his Twitter account will be for communicating with Korean folks-an arrangement that has worked out fairly well so far. And much like the
Internet everywhere else, Korea's Twitterverse is full of hilarious slang
and memes.
So here are some Korean slang terms ans expressions that went through

A A K ! ' S FA C E B O O K PA G E

the Korean's Timeline in the last several days. Keep in mind that this list

Ask a Korean

is far, far from comprehensive, and may become outdated rather quickly.

It only contains random samples of some of the slang that the Korean

827

could see in the last several days before he wrote this post. But for
curious people, it could be an interesting sampler of Korean slang terms.

The list of slang terms, after the jump.

Ask a Korean

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at

6:24

askakorean@gmail.com.

(v.) - to be the best. is the first letter in the old Sino-Korean

counting system.

Wait, Americans told me g

of encouragement are all w
achieve excellence.
https://youtu.be/F68VUs31

(v.) - to move expeditiously; "go-go-ssing," with "ssing" being an

onomatopoeia for moving quickly.
(v.) - to be pwned. Distortion of "" (Literally, "to
be raped".)
(n.) - reverse pwnage.
(n.) - very arduous endeavor, often unnecessary; literally, "dog

endeavor".
(n.) - an utterly wrong statement; literally, "dog noise".

AAK! ON TWITTER

Tweets by @AskAKorean
(adv.) - very. Contraction of "". (Literally, "scarily").
(v.) - to be extremely upset; literally, "to foam at the mouth
like a crab"
(v.) - to be ok; to be decent. Distorted form of "".
(v.) - to criticize; literally, "to kick".
(n.) - a pedant; an annoying person who gives condescending
lectures.
Related: (n.) - being a pedant.

ABOUT TK

(v.) - to be extremely fun. Contraction of (literally,

"fun that tastes like honey").
(n.) - male main character (in a novel, drama, movie, etc.).

T.K. (ASK A KOREAN !)

Contraction of .
Antonym: (n.) - female main character. Contraction of
.

The Korean is a Korean

American living in
Washington D.C. /
Northern Virginia. He

(adv.) - very. Contraction of "".

lived in Seoul until he was

16, then moved to Los

(adj.) - well-known. Korean pronunciation of "named", originates

Angeles area. The Korean

from MMORPG games that have "named weapons," i.e. unique and

refers to himself in the

particularly strong weapons.

third person because he

thinks it sounds cool.

(n.) - a joke. Contraction of " [ad lib]".

V I EW M Y C OM PL ETE PROFI L E

Related: (n.) - the ability to make jokes.

Related: (v.) - make a joke.
Related: (n.) - a bad joke; literally, a "dog" joke.
(v.) - to want. Distortion of "" (literally, "to pull").

S U B S C R I B E TO

Posts
Comments

(n.) - a legendary story. Combination of " [legend]" and

.
BLOG ARCHIVE

(n.) - (mental) devastation. Contraction of " [mental] ".

(int.) - "What?" Distortion of "?" ["What's this?"]
(v.) - to be pwned. Literally, "to be smeared (like butter)" or "to be
flayed".
(n.) - pride that is often excessive and unnecessary. Contraction of
"".
Related: (n.) - pride held by women with big boobs. Contraction
of " ".
(n.) - dumb action.
Related: (n.) - a dumb Tweet.
(n.) - dumb, useless action. Literally, "shoveling".
(n.) - "Happy birthday". Contraction of " ".
(adv.) - "to be completely honest." Contraction of "
".
(v.) - to act or demonstrate, usually with mock ceremony

Blog Archive

 (n.) - a story.
Related: (n.-v.) - to tell a story. Literally, "to unravel a story."
(adj.) - sad, pathetic. Contraction of " " (literally,
"humidity in the eyeball", i.e. tearing up.)
(n.) - a pornographic novel. Contraction of " " (literally,
"obscene novel').
(n.) - deliberate provocation, usually to spark an argument.
Contraction of "aggressive" or "aggression".
Related: (adj.-n.) provocation that aims at a great number
of people, either by picking on a sensitive topic or by insulting a large
group of people.
(n.) - a nerd, with an unusual and specific area of interest (e.g.
Japanese animation); Koreanization of "otaku"
Synonyms: (n.); (n.); (n.). Contraction of ""
Related: (n.) or (n.) - a particularly nerdy nerd. Play on the
word "," which can be read as "five " (while can be read as
"ten ").
Related: (n.) - breadth of knowledge in the area of geekery;
literally, "nerd power".
Related: (n.) - Western nerd.
Related: (n.) - nerd focusing on military weaponry. Contraction of
" [military] ".
(n.) - bootleg; fake or black market product.
(n.) - kicking when someone's down; salting the wound. Literally,
"salting".
(int.) - "What the hell?". Contraction of " " ["What
is this, you moron?"]
(v.) - to banter, usually in smart aleck; literally, "to uncover
teeth".
Related: (n.) - smart aleck-y banter; literally, "teeth".
(n.) - a jobless, useless person; literally, "leftover".
Related: (n.) - a useless person who spends too much time on
Twitter. Combination of ["Twitter"] and .
(n.) - flirting. Literally, "work" or "operation".

 (n.) - penis.
Related: (v.) - to be bad (as in quality).
Related: (v.) - to be little; literally, "as little as a dick."
Related: (n.) - an insignificant thing; literally, "dick feed."
Related: (adv.) - very. Also distorted into or .
Related: (v.) - to fuck off; literally, "peel a dick." Also distorted
into .
(v.) - to be fun. Distortion of "".
(n.) - a picture. Contraction of " " (literally, "cut
prevention"). Originated from a popular web community called DC
Inside, which began as a digital photo sharing site. Because DC Inside
would delete a post without a picture (as it was contrary to the purpose of
the site,) people who frequent DC Inside to write about topics other than
photography began adding just any photo.
Synonym: (n.) - contraction of .
Related: (n.) - disgusting or gross picture. Contraction of "
" [disgusting ]
Related: (n.) - moving gif. Contraction of " " [moving
]
Related: (n.) - picture of food. Contraction of " " [food
]
(v.) - to be awesome, either in quality or scale.
(n.) - America. Literally, either "heavenly kingdom," a term that
old Korea referred to China, to which it was a vassal state, or "the one
trillion country," referring to the fact that U.S. annual budget is more
than KRW 1 trillion.
(n.) - favorite character; favorite person. Contraction of "
[character]", originally used in the context of video
games involving a lot of characters.
(n.) - a shy and cold person who secretly has a heart of gold.
Korean pronunciation of "tsundere."
(n.) - stabbing; "knife acupuncture".
Synonym: (n.) - stabbing
(adj.) - case-by-case. Contraction of " ".

 (v.) - to call it even.

(n.) - woman who likes gay men; Korean pronunciation of
"fujoshi"
Synonym: (n.) - Contraction of "".
Related: (n.) - movies, dramas or comics featuring gay men,
aimed toward women.
(n.) - embarrassing personal stories of the past; "dark history".
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at
askakorean@gmail.com.
POSTED BY T. K. ( ASK A KOR EAN ! ) AT 11:47 PM
+6 Recommend this on Google

24 COMMENTS:
Stephane MOT 8/21/2013 12:15 AM
Thank you for this priceless sum.
I bet some readers will ask for transliterations.
Reply

l46kok 8/21/2013 12:20 AM

Perhaps "" would be a good addition?
Reply
Replies
2/25/2014 9:21 AM
Yes.
Reply

kolvere 8/21/2013 12:30 AM

As I know, "" is an intended typo of "".
Reply
Replies
The Korean 8/21/2013 5:11 PM
That's actually correct. I was mixing "" with "
." Correction made.

Reply

refresh daemon 8/21/2013 12:33 AM

Wow. I'm so out of touch with contemporary Korean language. I
only knew a handful of these and mostly from watching movies.
Reply

qklilx 8/21/2013 2:19 AM

, , , among others.
Reply

Dac X Lee 8/21/2013 3:28 AM

Why is there no "" on the list?!
Reply

bumfromkorea 8/21/2013 4:00 PM

, , , , and would be a good addition as
well.
I had no idea that meant " ". For some
reason, I thought it meant " meaning?" X-D
, ...
Hey! would be a good one too.
Reply
Replies
The Korean 8/21/2013 5:11 PM
Turns out I made a mistake about --see the
comment above. ...
Reply

8/21/2013 6:34 PM
actually means but peoples typing keyboard too fast so,
make mistake . -> (last
and are incorrect). and peoples accept that new word.
come from 'named monster', who have have name(not
millions monsters who have same name) in mmorpg 'world of
warcraft'. not named weapon.
Reply

Replies
8/21/2013 6:44 PM
for example, ? ( ?)
Reply

kanie 8/22/2013 12:53 AM

"" is a Korean pronunciation of "aggro", which again comes
from World of Warcraft (WoW). This is an imported word from
English gaming community. Aggro is a concept not specific to
WoW, but Korean WoW communities made this word popular.
See http://www.wowwiki.com/Aggro.
Reply
Replies
kanie 8/22/2013 12:59 AM
To many young Koreans, the word "" means
gaining many people's attention by doing or saying
something very unpleasant

David J 8/26/2013 7:02 PM

'Aggro' did not come from WoW.
Actually, It is a concept created by Everquest in 1999.
Reply

kanie 8/22/2013 1:34 AM

"" comes from Chinese word (, literally "Celestial
Dynasty"), a glorified word to call the Chinese government.
Before modern era, China and Joseon had a tributary
relationship (like many other countries surrounding China). In
this system, the tributary country called the Chinese government
as , and China as (, literally "Celestial Empire").
was not an everyday word, and was mainly used in
diplomatic letters sent to China. ( , literally "Upper
country") is a word with similar usage.
Then, why do many Koreans call America as ? This has a
hidden derogatory meaning against the Korean government.
Referring US as the "Celestial empire" or the "Upper country", we
are making a criticism against Korean government overly friendly
to the United States. I think it's an analog to a Tony Blair's
nickname "Bush's poodle".
Reply

Replies
kuiwon 8/22/2013 9:46 PM
"This has a hidden derogatory meaning against the
Korean government."
I think this sentiment might be wide spread. I heard at
a gathering not too long ago a Korean acquaintance
say, "On August 15th, a Japanese colony became an
American colony." No one in the room countered his
suggestion. Someone even affirmed. I didn't know him
too well, so I didn't respond. As for the blog post, I
actually thought just meant ("onetrillion country") until I read The Korean's blog post.
Also, I'm surprised there are so many Japanese slang
words here. As I covered on my blog, a lot of Koreans
on twitter tweeted not to use the word "" because
it's a Japanese word.

David J 8/26/2013 6:53 PM

Gee, You've gone too far man.
No single Korean uses as "Celestial Dynasty" or
"Celestial Empire", it's all about 'one trillion (military
budget-spending) country'.
They're just homonyms :/
Reply

immerever 8/23/2013 12:35 AM

Hello, TK! Interesting post once again.
Reading the list, I can not help thinking that many of them are
rather new and well spread among younger generation.
Allow me to add some from top of my head.
And corrections are welcomed.
. (get a bullet in one's head)
= used to express total insanity
. (wind in one's lungs)
= used to describe someone with too much laughter
. (lay a mat)
= used to express acute sense of observation and prediction.
. (write a novel)
= used when one's great volume of lying is detected
. (peel beans)
= used to express sex

 (lick outer side of watermelon)

= used to express work done in fast and almost zero-effort
manner.

Reply
Replies
immerever 8/23/2013 12:40 AM
one more which is my favorite.
(Making sound of dog
grazing)
= used to express one's speech is total non sense

Kwangju Kim 1/02/2014 11:10 AM

is also used to 'tease the second or the runners
(especially who usually lose the final match in the
tournament)'
adopted
from
former
Korean
professional Starcraft player called Hong Jin-ho.
Reply

9/16/2013 12:53 PM
This comment has been removed by the author.
Reply

iamonlyhuman1981 8/03/2015 3:47 AM

Hi
Can you tell me the meaning of this ?
Reply
Replies
Unknown 11/19/2015 3:08 AM
it's a cute way of saying
Reply

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