My Korean-English dictionary defines 번번하다 and 반반하다 as "smooth" or "even" when talking about things, and as "fair," "comely," "chiseled," or "handsome" when talking about faces, but a couple of days ago I learned that 번번하다 and 반반하다 can also mean "respectable," "decent," "highborn," or "noble." I learned it from the following Korean definition of 번번하다: "지체가 높은 모양 등을 뜻함."
지체 means "lineage," "birth," "family stock," or "pedigree," so the phrases 지체가 높은 and 지체가 낮은 can translate as "of noble birth" and "of humble birth," respectively.
Anyway, after seeing the Korean definition, I became suddenly curious to know what Chinese characters was used for the word 지체, so I looked it up in my dictionary and was surprised to discover that 지체 is a pure Korean word, which means it is not a word made from Chinese characters (Sino-Korean). So, 지체 is one of those pure Korean words that, for some reason, sound like they have a Chinese origin. In fact, I am still not 100 percent convinced that it does NOT have a Chinese origin.
The word 지체 is mentioned in THIS KOREAN ARTICLE, which is entitled 족보를 알고 싶은 말들 ("Words of Which We Want to Know Their Genealogy"). The article also mentions that 생각하다 (to think) is another pure Korean word that many mistakenly think comes from Chinese.
By the way, the difference between 번번하다 and 반반하다 is that 반반하다 has as sense of being smaller than 번번하다. So, I guess that means you would use 번번하다 when talking about the face of an adult and 반반하다 when talking about the face of a child.
By the way, the difference between 번번하다 and 반반하다 is that 반반하다 has as sense of being smaller than 번번하다. So, I guess that means you would use 번번하다 when talking about the face of an adult and 반반하다 when talking about the face of a child.
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