Sunday, May 08, 2005

What does 유명하다 literally mean?

유명(有名)하다 means "famous," but the literal meaning of the word's Chinese characters is "having a name." Koreans also say a person is famous by saying 이름있다, which seems to be a pure Korean translation of 유명(有名).

At one time, did simply having a name make one famous in Korea? I do not know, but we have a similar expression in English, which is, "Make a name for one's self."

1 comment:

  1. Hi
    I am a Chinese,so I know the meaning.有名 should be the abbreviation of 有名氣(has reputation). Thus it has no relation with "has a name".

    By the way, I am learning korean and I found your website accidently. I am happy that I can learn korean here.

    May I keep contact with you so that I can ask you questions about korean?

    ReplyDelete