질세 (jilsae): This word is a slang term derived from the Japanese word “ジルセ” (jiruse), which means “to shout loudly” or “to yell.”
I couldn’t find a definition in naver dictionary*, open dictionary, or the korean learners’ dictionary, although the latter did have an example sentence that seems to support the AI definition above:
백군의 함성 소리에 질세라 청군도 큰 소리로 응원을 하기 시작했다.
* It didn’t fit the context of what I was reading, but 질세 can mean ‘길이’ in (함경남도) dialect.
Wasn’t able to find a Japanese definition of ジルセ in a dictionary or a quick google search, so not sure if the origin is right.
Slang is always so interesting! It’s just verifying the definition and origin that can sometimes be difficult.
This made me want to look at my slang dictionary, and this was too good not to put here. I also learned the word for neologism, 신조어 (新造語), and the hanja here actually makes so much sense! 新 for new, 造 for construct and 語 for language! So, a neologism is a new word construct, that’s basically the definition of the word in the hanja.
I use Trend a word. It’s a sort of slang newsletter, so it doesn’t have that many words but the explanations are interesting.
I use that one too! I’ve also been struggling with Hanja. I know a few common ones, and some that I remember from specifically looking up because I misinterpreted the meaning of a word (like 병사, it has the hanja for soldier 兵 instead of 病 for illness, in 병원).
I recognise a lot of the characters when I look things up, which is useful - what I’d like to work on is connecting the Korean pronunciations with the meanings to make it easier to guess new Sino-Korean words as I come across them. Not that you have to learn hanja to make connections, but it’s more efficient than relying solely on 한글, as your example demonstrates.
creation of the world
하늘과 땅이 처음으로 열림.
A state in which the heaven and the earth are created.
big change
(비유적으로) 자연계에서나 사회에서 큰 변화가 일어남.
(figurative) A state in which a great change takes place in nature or society.
天 하늘 천; heaven
地 땅 지; earth
開 열 개; [to] open
闢 열 벽; [to] open, widen
I came across this word in the context of the second definition, with an elderly character using it to emphasise how the world has changed since they were young:
내가 어릴 때랑 지금은 세상이 천지개벽할 정도로 변했다고.
Looking at the hanja definitions, the literal meaning seems to be the distance between heaven and earth becoming greater, metaphorically representing an enormous change - in this case between the past and present.
ETA: Another interesting one!
백년손님 (百年손님)
한평생을 두고 늘 어려운 손님으로 맞이한다는 뜻으로, ‘사위’를 이르는 말.
I feel like I’ve seen this translation before. Not sure whether it was for the same word or not though.
For another interesting expressions, I have “호랑이 담배 피던 시절”, and yes you read that correctly. I didn’t know tigers had ever smoked, but I guess that’s because I’m too young to be born in the time period where tigers smoked. That’s pretty much the meaning of this, a long time ago.
I found it in the following sentence, from a folktale in a graded reader:
I was reading the following sentence, 마냐라면 눈동자의 색깔이 수시로 바뀔 게다. I was all confident at first, certain that I could understand the sentence perfectly: A witch’s pupil color changes into sushi… Yep, that doesn’t make any sense.
Turns out, 수시로 actually means frequently. And my reasoning was also flawed from the beginning, since sushi isn’t 수시 but 스시 (the loanword) or 초밥 (醋밥) with, funnily enough, the hanja for vinegar.
The one time I thought I managed to catch a konglish word before looking it up and feeling stupid…
Tbf, I see 스시 all the the time (more common than 초밥 in my experience) but my dumb brains still frequently types 수시 when looking for it. Even in Japanese, it sounds like 수시 not 스시… so not sure why Koreans transcribed it that way!
(Can I also say that I love that you are fine with ‘마냐’ & ‘눈동자’ but hadn’t seen 스시 )
Oups, that was a typo, I meant 마녀. But tbh I feel like my knowledge of Korean vocab is strange, I know some super specific and uncommon words and then idk some super easy and common words? There’s always these moments where I look up a word and somehow it’s a TOPIK I word that I don’t remember ever seeing or hearing before.
I came across a new sort of grammar form today while reading 마녀를 잡아라 | L22??. Or well, maybe not exactly a grammar form, but rather a new way to categorize and refer to people. ~뱅이 and ~쟁이!
It’s a pretty simple structure of noun~뱅이/쟁이.
So a lazy person would be 게으름뱅이 or 게으름쟁이. A poor person would be 가난뱅이, etc. Both suffixes have similar uses, although it seems that 뱅이 has a more negative connotation and use.
I also stumbled upon a super interesting article about Words denoting human beings in Korean while looking into this, and it turned out to be a real treasure trove of information and examples!
Today, I learned a nice little grammar point: Noun-별.
~별 is added to nouns that represent more than one type or level of something. When this is done, it classifies the different types/levels and indicates that something is done (separately) for each type/level. Lesson 126: To be Grouped or Classified by: ~별
Also a new word, 모둠 for group/assortment, found in the following sentence in 매일매일 아침밥 먹으리 | L15?? :
작년에 담임선생님은 모둠별 숙제를 엄청 잘 내줬었는데 그때 속 터져 죽을 뻔했던 적이 한두 번이 아니다.
Here, adding the two, we get 모둠별!
I picked up this book because I thought it’d be a very quick and easy read, but vocab is actually a lot harder than I expected, and while most sentences aren’t too complex, I’ve already come across a few new grammar points.
As I was perusing the howtostudykorean website, I also came across these two lessons:
Also, a little note on the Hanja in 의성어 (擬聲語, onomatopoeia) and 의태어 (擬態語, mimetic word). The 어/語 is easy, it’s the Hanja for word/language in 한국어.
The other Hanja that they have in common, 의/擬, has the meaning of copying or mimicking here. Looking at other words that contain this Hanja, there’s 모의, meaning mock, as in 모의 시험 for mock test or simulation test.
Now, looking at the specific Hanja, 성/聲 is actually the Hanja for sound or voice, like in 음성 for voice. On the other hand, 태/態 means manner or condition, and it’s found in 상태 (condition, state). So just looking at the Hanja, 의성어 (擬聲語) is a word the mimics a sound while 의태어 (擬態語) is a word that mimics a state/form.
It’s a nice insight into the difference between these two types of words, and I also found here an article with more precisions.
It turns out, eating 며칠 똥 is actually a thing! It’s supposed to be full of calcium, vitamin B and amino acids. I even came across this pretty funny article about anchovies, that mentions the debate of whether people should eat 멸치 똥.
As a bonus, I also learned the word for acid, 산 (酸). It turns out that when you think about it, there aren’t many things that 아미노산 could mean.
