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Etymology 1
First attested in the Yongbi eocheon'ga (龍飛御天歌 / 용비어천가), 1447, as Middle Korean ᄂᆞᆷ〮 (Yale: nóm).
Pronunciation
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Noun
남 • (nam)
- other person, other people; someone other than the self
- Antonym: 나 (na, “I; me”)
- stranger, someone one does not know
우리 고등학교 동창인데 왜 남 취급해?- Uri godeunghakgyo dongchang-inde wae nam chwigeuphae?
- We used to go to the same high school, why are you treating me like someone you don't know?
Etymology 2
Sino-Korean word from 男 (“man”), from the Middle Korean reading 남 (Yale: nàm).
Pronunciation
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Noun
남 • (nam) (hanja 男)
- (formal) man, male
- Coordinate term: 여(女) (yeo, “woman; female”)
- Short for 남작(男爵) (namjak, “baron”).
- son; used only when counting the number of children
- Coordinate term: 녀(女) (nyeo, “daughter”)
나는 2남 2녀 중 막내다.- Naneun 2nam 2nyeo jung mangnae-da.
- I am the youngest (child) among two sons and two daughters.
Usage notes
Korean has a number of words equivalent to English "man" and "woman".
- Sino-Korean 남자 (男子, namja, “boy; guy; man”) and 여자 (女子, yeoja, “girl; woman”) are the most common words, but can have a somewhat informal connotation.
걔는 남자야? — 아니, 여자야.- Gyae-neun namja-ya? - Ani, yeoja-ya.
- Is he/she a guy? — No, she's a girl.
남자친구 / 여자친구- namja-chin'gu / yeoja-chin'gu
- boyfriend / girlfriend
- Sino-Korean 남성 (男性, namseong, “male; men”) and 여성 (女性, yeoseong, “female; women”) refer to men and women as groups—though pluralized 남자들 (namja-deul, “the boys; the guys; the men”) and 여자들 (yeoja-deul, “the girls; the women”) is informally more common for this purpose—or to individual adult men and women in formal or polite contexts.
여성 인권 운동- yeoseong in'gwon undong
- women's rights movement, feminism
20대 남성이 실종되었습니다. (in a news report)- 20dae namseong-i siljongdoe-eot-seumnida.
- A man in his twenties has gone missing.
- Sino-Korean 여인 (女人, yeoin, “woman”) is literary. There is no male counterpart.
- The bare Sino-Korean morphemes 남 (男, nam, “male”) and 여 (女, yeo, “female”) is generally used in formal contexts, especially when referring to each gender as a collective but also for male or female individuals in more legalistic contexts. They are commonly written in hanja even when the rest of the text is in pure Hangul script.
남과 여의 만남- nam-gwa yeo-ui mannam
- the meeting of Man and Woman
- Native 사내 (sanae, “man”) and 계집 (gyejip, “woman”) are not as commonly used. 사내 (sanae) often has a connotation of machismo or manliness, while 계집 (gyejip) has become offensive and derogatory.
Note that in Early Modern Korean (1600—c. 1900) and in contemporary Standard North Korean, Sino-Korean 여 (女, yeo, “female”) is written and pronounced 녀 (nyeo), hence 녀자 (女子, nyeoja), 녀성 (女性, nyeoseong), 녀인 (女人, nyeoin).
See also
- 아들 (adeul, “son (in general)”)
Prefix
남— • (nam-) (hanja 男)
- (before nouns referring to people) man, male
- Coordinate term: 여(女) (yeo-, “woman; female”)
- 남고딩 ― namgoding ― male high schooler
Suffix
—남 • (-nam) (hanja 男)
- man (who is characterized by this)
- Coordinate term: 녀(女) (-nyeo, “woman; female”)
- 짝남 ― jjangnam ― the guy I have a crush on
- 썸남 ― sseomnam ― the guy I'm flirting with
- 유부남 ― yubunam ― married man
Etymology 3
Sino-Korean word from 南 (“south”), from the Middle Korean reading 남 (Yale: nàm).
Pronunciation
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Romanizations |
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Revised Romanization? | nam |
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Revised Romanization (translit.)? | nam |
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McCune–Reischauer? | nam |
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Yale Romanization? | nam |
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Noun
남 • (nam) (hanja 南)
- (formal in isolation, more common in writing) south
- Synonym: (more common in isolation) 남(南)쪽 (namjjok)
- Antonym: 북(北) (buk, “north”)
Coordinate terms
(compass points)
Derived terms
- 남(南)녘 (namnyeok, “the south”)
- 남(南)쪽 (namjjok, “south”)
Proper noun
남 • (Nam) (hanja 南)
- Short for 남한(南韓)/남조선(南朝鮮) (namhan/namjoseon, “South Korea”).
- Antonym: 북(北) (buk, “North Korea”)
Usage notes
In news headlines, this is usually written solely in the hanja form, even in contemporary Korean text otherwise devoid of any Hanja.
Etymology 4
Modern Korean reading of various Chinese characters, from the Middle Korean reading 남 (Yale: nam).
Etymology 5
Modern South Korean reading of various Chinese characters in isolation or as the first element of a compound, which was also true of most dialects (both North and South) in 1945. From Middle Korean 람 (Yale: lam); when preceded by another character in a compound, they retain the original 람 (ram) form.
In the North Korean standard, they are always read as 람 (ram), but this is an artificial imposition intended to standardize Sino-Korean readings, which did not reflect any major dialect's pronunciation in 1945.