What does 엇- mean?

ANSWER: crooked, obliquely, aslant, diagonally; cross each other, go amiss, go crisscross; deviate from, run counter to; avoid each other, dodge each other; a little, rather, somewhat

As you can see, there are many possible translations of 엇, but the three general meanings are slanted, crisscross, and a little. 엇 is a Korean prefix, which means it is not used by itself but instead is attached to other words to modify or refine their meanings. Here is a list of words that have 엇 as a prefix:

• 엇가다 - to go awry, turn aside, to deviate from, be perverse
• 엇갈리다 - cross each other, miss each other on the road
• 엇걸다 - make a diagonal loop, stack (rifles by crisscrossing them teepee style)
• 엇걸리다 - (passive of 엇걸다) to be made into a diagonal loop, to be stacked
• 엇걷다 - weave (loop) at an angle
• 엇결 - cross-grain (of wood)
  
• 엇구수하다 - rather tasty, rather humorous
• 엇그루 - a tree stump that has been cut diagonally
  
• 엇나가다 - (the same meaning as 엇가다)
• 엇놀리다 - moving (exchanging) one's hands and feet (as if climbing a ladder or crawling)
• 엇대다 - to fix (put) askew; insinuate
• 엇되다 - be (somewhat) snobbish
• 엇뜨기 - a squinter (뜨다 means to open one's eyes, and 엇뜨다 means to open them a little.)
• 엇뜨다 - squint (one's eyes)
• 엇먹다 - to cut (wood) at an angle; to twist words, distort remarks
• 엇바꾸다 - exchange (with each other), interchange
• 엇박다 - to hammer (a nail) at a slight, insert at a slant
• 엇베다 - to cut diagonally (at an angle)
• 엇붙다 - (a thing or things) touch at an angle
• 엇비뚜름하다 - be a bit crooked on one side
• 엇비슷하다 - be almost alike, be nearly the same
• 엇서다 - be perverse, be cross-grained, be self-centered
• 엇섞다 - mix in alternation
• 엇세우다 - to cause to be perverse
• 엇셈 - an offset (accounting)
• 엇지다 - to deviate a little
• 엇지르다 - to cross somewhat, to intersect somewhat

By the way, there is no Chinese character that represents the Korean sound 엇, so Koreans have made their own character. The character is 旕 (엇), which is a combination of the Chinese characters 於 (어) and 叱 (질). Though the character 叱  is pronounced /질/ when used by itself, Koreans use it in their self-made combination characters to represent the final consonant sounds ㅅ and ㅈ, using just the initial consonant of the character. ㄷ, ㅅ, and ㅈ all have the same /ㄷ/ sound at the end of a single syllable. The character 旕 (엇) is not used to represent the 엇 sound in the above "pure Korean" words, but it is used to represent the 엇 sound in the following "Sino-Korean" word:

旕時調 (엇시조)

Sijo (시조 - 時調) is one style of Korean poetic verse, and 엇시조 (旕時調) is one style of 시조. An 엇시조 is a style of 시조 that does not follow the traditional 시조 form. For example, if the third line of a traditional three-line 시조 is longer than the first two lines, then it could be referred to as an 엇시조 since it deviates from the traditional form.