Sunday, September 09, 2018

What does 카더라 mean?

Answer: 카더라 is the Gyeongsang dialectal pronunciation of "하더라," as in the expression "~라고 하더라," which can be translated as "I've heard it said that." It refers to rumors or speculation from vague, unknown, or unreliable sources. Such rumors or speculation is often attributed to sources like "An industry source [has said] (업계 관계자)," "Someone I know [said] (아는 사람)," "Some magazine [wrote that] (어느 잡지), "An article I once read [said] (언젠가 본 기사), or "I once saw a broadcast [that] (예전에 본 방송). Also, 카더라 통신 (카더라 communications) refers to rumor or speculation that is falsely attributed to reliable sources, such as the Associated Press or Reuters, to spread the particular rumor or speculation. LINK

I came across the word 카더라 when I was reading about the etymology of 불여우, which does not mean fire fox but rather red fox, as explained HERE. Anyway, the word 카더라 appeared in the following sentence of the article:
대충 오십 년 가까이 살면 불여우가 되고 백 살을 넘기면 백여우가 되고 거기서 더 살면 구미호가 된다는 설명도 있었느나 이는 최근 구미호 붐으로 파생되 카더라로 보인다.
There were stories that if it lived for approximately fifty years, it would become a red fox; if it lived for more than 100 years, it would become a white fox; and if it lived longer than that, it would become a 9-tailed fox (구미호), but it seems these are unreliably sourced rumors that have sprung up because of the recent booming interest in 9-tailed foxes.

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