Oxford English Dictionary adds seven new Korean words including ‘dalgona’ and ‘tteokbokki’

This is the first time since September 2021 that the dictionary has added new Korean words

Squid Game (Netflix)

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has added seven new Korean words, including “dalgona” and “maknae”.

According to the OED’s website on Tuesday, the words “noraebang,” “hyung,” “jjigae,” “tteokbokki” and “pansori” were also added in the December update. This is the first time since September 2021 that the dictionary has added these words.

Dalgona, which entered the pop culture lexicon with the release of Netflix’s hit show Squid Game in 2021, is defined as a “Korean confection made by adding baking soda to melted sugar, typically sold by street vendors in the form of a flat disc with a simple shape such as a heart, star, etc., carved on its surface”.

On Squid Game, cash-strapped contestants are given rounds of dalgona with shapes etched into it, which they have to carve out painstakingly while ensuring the  brittle candy doesn’t crack. A popular game Koren children play, a single piece of dalgona candy costs about 2,000 won (£1.08) but some street vendors give a buy-one, get-one-free deal if you don’t crack the first one.

Maknae is “the youngest person in a family or group; the youngest member of a K-pop group”.

The Oxford English Dictionary has added the word ‘maknae,’ which refers to ‘the youngest person in a family or group or the youngest member of a K-pop group’. Jungkook is the maknae of the popular boy band BTS (Getty Images)

Noraebang is a “private room which can be hired by a person or group to perform karaoke; an establishment featuring one or more of such rooms”.

Hyung is defined as “a boy or man’s elder brother. Also as a respectful form of address or term of endearment, and in extended use with reference to an older male friend”.

Like the previous time, more food-related words have been added into the dictionary, like jjigae, which means “any of various broth-based stews, typically made with seafood, meat, or vegetables,” and tteokbokki, which is a “Korean dish consisting of small, cylindrical rice cakes cooked in a spicy sauce made with gochujang, usually served as a snack”.

A street food vendor prepares tteokbokki, or rice cakes cooked in a spicy sauce, in Busan (AFP via Getty Images)

Pansori is a “traditional Korean narrative musical work performed by a single singer, accompanied by a drummer”.

Reflecting on the global spread of Korean culture, Jieun Kiaer, a professor of Korean linguistics at the University of Oxford’s Asian and Middle Eastern Studies who serves as the Korean language consultant for the dictionary, told Yonhap that the new words that have been included are frequently used and discussed in English-speaking countries.

“Korean-related words will be updated annually from now on,” she said. “Korean food terms are expected to continue being added to the dictionary.”

The words “haenyeo” (female divers), “ahjumma” (middle-aged woman), and “bingsu” (shaved ice dessert) are also in consideration for future updates.

In 2021, the dictionary added 26 Korean words, including the word “hallyu”, which means “Korean wave” and refers to South Korean pop culture and entertainment. Several words referring to older features of Korean culture also made it into the update, including “hanbok” (a traditional Korean outfit worn by both men and women), and “Tang Soo Do” (a Korean martial art).