까치

Korean

Etymology

First attested in the Jīlín lèishì (鷄林類事 / 계림유사), 1103, as Late Old Korean 渴則寄 (Yale: *kacoki). Also attested in the Yongbi eocheon'ga (龍飛御天歌 / 용비어천가), 1447, as Middle Korean 가〯치〮 (Yale: kǎchí). The spontaneous gemination of the initial consonant occurred in the late nineteenth century. Spontaneous gemination is a recurrent phenomenon in Modern Korean, motivated by sound-symbolic effects.

Probably cognate to Japanese 鵲 (kasasagi, “the Eurasian magpie”). No known connection to 어치 (eochi, “Eurasian jay”).

Pronunciation

(SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [ˈk͈a̠(ː)t͡ɕʰi]
Phonetic hangul: [까(ː)치]
- Though still prescribed in Standard Korean, most speakers in both Koreas no longer distinguish vowel length.

Romanizations
Revised Romanization^?	kkachi
Revised Romanization (translit.)^?	kkachi
McCune–Reischauer^?	kkach'i
Yale Romanization^?	kkā.chi

Noun

까치 • (kkachi)

magpie
In particular, the Eurasian magpie (Pica pica) or the Oriental magpie (Pica serica).

Synonyms

(Eurasian magpie): 유라시아까치 (yurasiakkachi)
(Oriental magpie): 한국까치 (韓國—, han'gukkkachi)

Derived terms

까치 두루마기 (kkachi durumagi, “kkachi durumagi”)
때까치 (ttaekkachi, “shrike”)
한국까치 (韓國—, han'gukkkachi)