곰ᄇᆡ

Middle Korean

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kompʌj/

Noun

곰ᄇᆡ (kwompoy)

1. In the highly archaic fifteenth-century song "Dongdong", the speaker says that she receives virtue in "kwompoy" and fortune in "limpoy". The meaning of this term is uncertain. Possibilities include:
   • 14th century?, “動動 (Dongdong)”, in 樂學軌範 (Akhak Gwebeom)‎^[1]:

     德(덕)으란 곰ᄇᆡ예 받ᄌᆞᆸ고 福(복)으란 림ᄇᆡ예 받ᄌᆞᆸ고 德(덕)이여 福(복)이라 호ᄂᆞᆯ 나ᅀᆞ라 오소ᅌᅵ다

     TEK-ulan kwompoy-yey patcopkwo PWOK-ulan limpoy-yey patcopkwo TEK-iye PWOK-ila hwon-ol nazola woswongita

     As for virtue, I receive it in kwompoy; as for fortune, I receive it in limpoy; I have come to present what is called virtue and fortune.

   1. Yang 1947, the first major study of the work, believed that kwompoy and limpoy were two vessels used in the ceremonial dance that accompanied the singing of "Dongdong", connecting the second syllable poy to Sino-Korean 杯 (bēi, “cup”). Note, however, that the "Dongdong" manuscript marked all Sino-Korean words as such, whereas kwompoy and limpoy were written as fully native words.
   2. Yang also speculated a connection to sailors' jargon 고물 (gomul, “stern of a ship”) and 이물 (imul, “bow of a ship”), with kwompoy perhaps referring to something towards the back and limpoy to something towards the front.
   3. Park 1968 connected kwompoy to 검 (geom, “deity”) and limpoy to 님 (nim, “lord”), and speculated that the first was an invocation of the divine and the second a reference to the monarch.
   4. Kim 2000 suggested that kwompoy and limpoy were two different movements in the choreography of the dance.
   5. Park 2018 suggested that kwompoy and limpoy are divine locations from which human virtue and fortune originate, noting that the contemporaneous history Goryeosa states that "Dongdong" was inspired by the "language of the immortals".

   Coordinate term: 림ᄇᆡ (limpoy)

Descendants

• ⇒ Early Modern Korean: 곰븨님븨 (kwompuynimpuy) (derived ideophone)
  • Korean: 곰비임비 (gombiimbi, “recurrently, stackingly”)
• ⇒ Early Modern Korean: 님븨곰븨 (nimpuykwompuy) (derived ideophone)

References

• 양주동 (Yang Chu-dong) (1947) 麗(여)謠(요)箋(전)注(주) [Annotations of the Goryeo Songs], Euryu munhwasa, pages 72—74
• 박병채 (Park Byeong-chae) (1968) 고려가요의 어석연구 [goryeogayoui eoseogyeon'gu, An Interpretive Study of the Goryeo Songs], Iu chulpansa, page 66
• 김완진 (Kim Wan-jin) (2000) 향가와 고려가요 [hyanggawa goryeogayo, The Hyangga and the Goryeo Songs], Seoul University Press, →ISBN, page 354
• 박재민 (Park Jae-min) (2018) “고려가요의 해석과 문학적 저변 [goryeogayoui haeseokgwa munhakjeok jeobyeon, The interpretation of the Goryeo songs and its literary basis]”, in Gugyeol Yeon'gu, volume 40, →DOI, pages 95—125