Tuesday, January 05, 2021

What does 백수 (白壽) mean?

 ANSWER: 99 years old

The Chinese character 白 (백) means "white," and 壽 (수) can mean either "long life," "longevity," or "age," so together the two characters literally means "white (白) age (壽)," but why does "white age" mean "99 years old"? 

Because if you add the Chinese character 一 (일), which means "one," to the top of 白 (백), you get 百 (백), which means "a hundred," and if you substract "one" (一) from "a hundred" (百), you get "99" (白), so 白壽 (백수) means "99 (白) years old (壽)."

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