고구마

Korean

Etymology

First attested in the Mulmyeonggo (물명고 / 物名考), 1824, as Early Modern Korean 고금아 (Yale: kokuma), borrowed from Japanese 孝行芋 (kōkō imo), a term used in the Tsushima dialect. Some earlier attestations are known, but they are in the context of quoting the dialectal Japanese word, not in a Korean context.

Korean words for potatoes and sweet potatoes

When sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) were first cultivated in Korea in the eighteenth century, the usual term for them was Sino-Korean 감져 (甘藷, gamjeo). However, this word became used for potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) as well when the latter were introduced to Korea in the nineteenth century. The potential for confusion between the two crops contributed to the growing popularity of the Japanese borrowing 고구마 (goguma). Most dialects, except for Jeju and Jeolla, eventually settled on 고구마 (goguma) as the word for sweet potatoes and 감자 (gamja) as the word for potatoes.

Pronunciation

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [ˈko̞(ː)ɡuma̠]
• Phonetic hangul: [고(ː)구마]
  • Though still prescribed in Standard Korean, most speakers in both Koreas no longer distinguish vowel length.

Romanizations
Revised Romanization?	goguma
Revised Romanization (translit.)?	goguma
McCune–Reischauer?	koguma
Yale Romanization?	kōkwuma

Noun

고구마

고구마 • (goguma)

1. sweet potato

   고구마를 기르다

   goguma-reul gireuda

   to grow sweet potatoes

   고구마를 캐다

   goguma-reul kaeda

   to dig up sweet potatoes

   다 익은 고구마의 노란 속이 정말 맛있어 보인다.

   da igeun goguma-ui noran sog-i jeongmal masisseo boinda.

   The yellow inside of the steamed sweet potato looks really delicious.

2. (Internet slang) plot development which frustrates the reader (e.g. the protagonist fails to achieve their goal) [from c. 2012]

   Antonym: 사이다 (saida)

Related terms

• 감자 (gamja, “potato”)
• 마 (ma, “yam”)

 

Further reading

• 小倉進平 (1924) “對馬方言と朝鮮語との交渉：朝鮮語に及ぼした對馬方言の影響”, in 南部朝鮮の方言‎^[1], 朝鮮史學會, page 199
• Fukui Rei [福井玲] (2014) “On the history of words for sweet potato and potato in Korean”, in Papers from the Second International Conference on Asian Geolinguistics‎^[2]