Friday, January 29, 2021

What does 용수철 literally mean?

 ANSWER: dragon-whisker metal

용수철 (龍鬚鐵) is the Sino-Korean word for "a metal spring," but the word literally means "dragon (龍) whisker (鬚) metal (鐵)." The character 龍 (용) means "dragon," and 鬚 (수) is the 수 in 수염 (鬚髥), which can mean "beard," "mustache," or "whiskers." And 鐵 (철) means "iron" or "metal."

The reason a metal spring was named "dragon-whisker metal" was that the coiled metal of a spring reminded the Chinese of the whiskers of an oriental dragon. Apparently, if you pulled on the whiskers of an oriental dragon to straighten them and then let go, they would return to their original coiled shape.

The following Korean video explains the origin of the word.

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