What does 모금 mean?

ANSWER: a sip, a gulp, or a draft

In my Chinese character dictionary, which lists over 8,000 characters, there is only one character pronounced "끽" (喫). That character can mean "to eat" or "to drink." So, cowards "eat fear" (끽겁 喫怯), parents with teenagers “eat suffering” (끽고 喫苦), the English “drink tea” (끽다 喫茶), smokers “eat smoke” (끽연 喫煙), we all “eat food” (끽반 喫飯), and some of us “eat and drink to the brim” (만끽 滿喫).

The reason I mention this is that I just read in a Korean book that when Deng Xiaoping (등소평 鄧小平) was asked his secret to longevity, he answered "喫煙" (끽연). I am not going to tell you the name of the book because no one really cares, right? I will just say that it is a good book.

Anyway, it makes me wonder why Koreans consider 모금 to be the standard spelling of the Korean word for "a sip," "a gulp," or "a draft." Since 먹다 is the pure Korean word for "to eat," it seems that 먹음 (or 머금) would be the more correct spelling. But Koreans consider 먹음 to be a dialectic form of the word, not the standard form.

By the way, the expression 끽다거 (喫茶去) literally means "drink (喫) tea (茶) and go (去)," which could be translated into Korean as either "차 한잔 마시고 가세요" or 차 한잔 드시고 가세요. 드십시오 is used as the polite form of 마시다 and comes from the verb 들다, which can mean either "to eat" or "to drink." Apparently, using 마시십시오 as the polite form of "to drink" is considered too awkward for many, probably because there are too many 시's in it. However, if you wanted to use the polite form of 마시다 to say "Breathe in the fresh air," you would say, "신선한 공기를 마시십시오," not "드십시오."

The following song is entitled "끽다거":

여보게 세상살이 다 밀어놓고
차나 한잔 드시게나
생이란 무생사는 원래가 허망한 것

맘자락 편히 내려놓고 만상을 들쳐보게나

여보게 세간살이 면이란 다 그런것
있으나 없으나 모두 버리고갈 유산인데
우에 그리 얽메이나
여보게 세상살이 다 밀어놓고
차나 한잔 드시게나