남성
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Etymology
Sino-Korean word from 男性, from 男 (“male”) + 性 (“sex, gender”)
Pronunciation
- (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA(key): [na̠msʰʌ̹ŋ]
- Phonetic hangul: [남성]
Noun
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
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