Language Matters | 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).
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.
