My Korean-English dictionary defines 소하다 (素--) as follows:
abstain from fish and meat; stick to a vegetarian diet
If not for the Chinese character 素 (소), which means "white," one might misinterpret 소하다 as meaning "I'm doing cow," since 소 is also the pure Korean word for "cow" and since cows eat grass. But since the 소 (素) here means "white," 소하다 seems to literally mean "I'm doing white," which made me ask myself, "What the heck?"
So, I had to look up 素 (소) in my Chinese character dictionary to try to figure out what was going on, and I found that 素 (소) can also mean 생초 (生草), which literally means "live grass."
Even though I still do not understand how "white" (素) came to mean "live grass" (生草), I at least now know that 소하다 literally means "to eat live grass."
By the way, "side dishes" (반찬 飯饌) that do not include meat or fish are called 소찬 (素饌), which literally means "live grass (소 素) meal or side dish (찬 饌)."
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| Dong-a's Prime Korean-English Dictionary (1998) |
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| 활용대옥편 (Chinese Characters Dictionary), HW어문연구회 편 (2007) |
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| Dong-a's Prime Korean-English Dictionary (1998) |
전 한국사람인데 '소하다'라는 말을 사람들이 쓰는 걸 들어본 적이 없는 것 같아요.
ReplyDeleteHi Gerry, I didn't even know you were still actively posting. Nice to see you are well!!
ReplyDelete素 really means 'as nature made it,' to include the idea of 'unspoiled.' This applied originally to raw silk--which is a whitish-beige before any dying or processing has been applied. You can find this in the Book of Rites: 《禮·雜記》純以素。where the footnotes define 素，生帛也。This base meaning is then extended to, "simple yet elegant" and "unadorned." Then this came to be applied to food as the opposite of "葷" (heavily spiced or meaty, [kind of un-Kosher from a Buddhist view? -- my speculation]. I can see how 素 could still be seen to have a sense of "unadorned" in contrast)
If Classical Chinese is your aim, Korean 옥편 are not always the best reference. There are specialist dictionaries for Classical Chinese that can be much more helpful for this kind of thing.