Today in my reading I came across the phrase 불현듯이, which can translate as "suddenly," "all of a sudden," "abruptly," or "unexpectedly," and suddenly (불현듯이) became interested in its origin.
According to Naver's dictionary HERE, the 불 in 불현듯이 means "light," and the 현 comes from the verb 혀다, which is an old spelling of 켜다 ("to light" or "to turn on"), so since 듯이 means "like," the phrase 불현듯이 literally translates as "like a light turning on," and when a light is turned on, a room "suddenly" lights up.
In English we have the phrase "a light bulb goes off (in someone's head)," which means someone has "sudden" understanding of something or has a "sudden" great idea.
No comments:
Post a Comment