What does the 네 in 동네 mean?

동네 can translate as "neighborhood" or "village," but until this morning I had always thought 동네 was a pure Korean word. It's not.

The 동 in 동네 is the Chinese character 洞 (동), which can already translate as "neighborhood" or "village," so what does the 네 mean?

네 is a pure Korean suffix that can mean either "a group of people," as in 그네 (those people) or 이네 (these people); or can mean "a family" or "household," as in 철수네 (the family of Cheol-su). So, the word 동네 literally means "the people or households of a neighborhood or village."

Koreans might not understand you if you said 동(洞) by itself to mean "neighborhood" or "village," but they would definitely understand you if you said 동네.

Other Words with 네

• 댁네 (宅네) literally means "house person" (집사람) and is an old way of referring to another person's wife.
• 늙으신네 is a polite way of referring to "old people" (늙은이).
• 어르신네 is the polite way to refer to another person's father, the father's friends, or to adults (어른) in general.
• 아낙네 literally means "inside (아낙) people (네)" and is a generally way of referring to the women of another person's household.
• 우리네 means "we" and is used to refer to yourself and the people around you or the people in your group.

Dong-a's Prime Korean-English Dictionary (1998)