What's the difference between 본데 and 본때?

ANSWER: Nothing?

본데 is a noun that means "good manners," "discipline," or "experience," and 본때 is a noun that means "a pattern," "a model," or "an example," but I wonder if they originally meant the same thing.

Anyway, 본데 있다 can translate as either "to have good manners" or "to be experienced," and 본데 없다 can translate as either "to have no manners" or "to be inexperienced." Likewise, 본때 있다 can translate as either "to be a good model" or "to be a good example," which implies being "attractive" or "impressive"; and 본때 없다 can translate as "to be a bad model" or "to be a bad example," which implies being "unattractive" or "unimpressive."

The 본 in 본데 seems to be a form of the verb 보다, which means "to see" or "to experience," so since 데 can mean "a place" or "a situation," 본데 seems to literally mean "a place or situation in which to see and experience." So, if a person has been in a place or situation where he or she could see and experience things, including good manners, he or she is likely to have experience and good manners (본데 있다), but if a person has not been in a place or situation where he or she could see and experience things, including good manners, he or she is likely to be inexperienced and to lack good manners (본데 없다).

The 본 in 본때 also seems to be a form of the verb 보다 (to see or experience), so since 때 means "time" or "opportunity," 본때 seems to literally translate as "a time or opportunity to see and experience." That would mean that the only difference between 본데 and 본때 is that 본데 means "a place to see and experience," and 본때 means "a time to see and experience," which would mean that both of them mean "an opportunity to see and experience."

However, my Korean-Korean dictionary says that the 본 in 본때 is a reference to 본보기 (本보기), which my Korean-English dictionary defines as "an example," "a model," or "a pattern," but which literally means "seeing (보기) the original (本)."

If a person "is experienced and has good manners" (본데 있다), he or she is a "model or good example" (본때 있다) for others, so I suspect that originally the only difference between 본데 있다 and 본때 있다 was how different people pronounced them.

HERE is a link to a Korean article that talks about 본데 and 본때.

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