Saturday, August 25, 2018

What does "kokutaru" mean?

Answer: cocktail

In a March 1, 2018 article HERE, Bruce K. Grant, author of A Guide to Korean Characters and other Korean- and Korea-related books, writes of his 1980 meeting with General Chun Doo-hwan. This meeting was soon after the coup that year. Mr. Grant was there to "facilitate" communication between an American official and General Chun and his officials. When Mr. Grant arrived (the last to arrive), he was offered a "kokutaru," or cocktail, by a servant. Instead, Mr. Grant asked for and received an orange juice because he was a Mormon and did not drink alcohol. Mr. Grant had first come to Korea in 1960 as a Mormon missionary.

"Kakuteru" (カクテル) is supposedly the Japanese word for cocktail, so it seems Koreans were still using a form of the Japanese word even in 1980.

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