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Bulgogi joengol - Korean hotpot. Bulgogi is among 26 Korean words that were added to the Oxford English Dictionary in September 2021, joining earlier entries including K-pop and kimchi. Photo: SCMP/Jonathan Wong
Opinion
Language Matters
by Lisa Lim
Language Matters
by Lisa Lim

Korean wave sweeps over Oxford English Dictionary – bulgogi, galbi and kimbap among 26 new Korean entries, joining K-pop and kimchi

  • The world is watching K-dramas, listening to K-pop and consuming K-beauty products and Korean food, making Korean words familiar to many
  • While K stands for Korean in English, South Korea’s official name translates as ‘the Democratic Nation of the Great Han’ and North Korea is Joseon

The Korean wave refers to the late-20th and 21st century global fervour for South Korea and its popular culture. Such worldwide engagement has been a driving force for increased currency of Korean-origin and Korean-related vocabulary – resulting in 26 words being added to the Oxford English Dictionary’s (OED) September 2021 update.

These include Korean wave, and its Korean-origin equivalent, hallyu, both first attested in English in 2001. Hallyu, modelled after the Mandarin hánliú, used in Taiwan from 1998, and the Japanese hanryū, appearing at the start of the 21st century – deriving from Han- for Korea, plus lyu from the Middle Chinese liú “stream, current” – is found in phrases such as “hallyu craze” and “hallyu fan”.

Food items feature prominently among the new entries, including bulgogi, galbi, kimbap. These join long-standing, staple items such as kimchi – an OED item since 1976 – and words for Korean culture, such as hanbok, taekwondo and Hangul (October 9 incidentally being Hangul Day).

An OED inclusion from 2016 is K-pop – the genre combining elements of Korean music with Western influences, typically performed by young soloists or groups with complex dance routines. Coined by Billboard magazine in 1999, the K clipped from “Korean”, this parallels Japanese pop music’s J-pop, in English usage a decade earlier.
Musicians in the street depicted in a detail from an i8th century screen painting on silk showing scenes from everyday life under the Choson or Joseon dynasty that ruled the Korean peninsula at the time. North Korea’s official name today is Choson/Joseon. Photo: DeAgostini/Getty Images

Korean culture is now so established that this K-for-Korean prefix now also has its own OED entry, forming nouns like K-beauty, K-culture, K-food and K-style.

But K is not for Korea in Korean: today, South Korea is 한국• Hanguk, officially 대한민국 Daehan Minguk “the Democratic Nation of the Great Han”, while North Korea is 조선• Chosŏn or Joseon.

The exonym Korea’s origins lie in the name of the dynasty ruling the Korean peninsula from AD935-1392, •고려 Goryeo or Koryŏ, “high and beautiful”. Persisting as Gāolì in China and Kōrai in Japan, this was the name heard by 13th century European voyagers, reflected variously as Caule, Cauli (by Marco Polo), Coria (in 17th century Portuguese Jesuit writings) and Corea (in 17th century East India Company employees’ letters).

While Corea and Korea were used through the 19th and 20th centuries, a preference for the latter in the United States and Korea from the late-19th century cemented modern orthography.

Such increased embracing of New Englishes is daebak – excellent, fantastic. In the K-spirit of expressing encouragement to go for it: fighting!

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