What does 무사마귀 literally mean?

 ANSWER: a water wart?

사마귀 can be a confusing word because it can mean either "a wart" or "a praying mantis," so maybe that is why Koreans also use 무사마귀 to refer to "a wart." But what does 무사마귀 literally mean"?

The Sino-Korean word for "wart" is 우목 (疣目), even though my Korean-English dictionary shows it as a pure-Korean word, and 우목 (疣目) literally means "a wart (疣) eye (目)," which refers to a wart near an eye. And a wart near an eye often looks like "a tear." So, since the Korean word for "a tear" is 눈물, which literally means "eye (눈) water (물)," 무사마귀 might possibly literally mean either "water (무) wart (사마귀)" or "tear wart."

Some may wonder why "water wart" would be written as "무사마귀" instead of "물사마귀" since 물 means "water," not 무. It is because, in Korean, when the first word in a compound word (a word made up of two or more words) ends in a ㄹ, and the following word begins with a ㄴ, ㄷ, ㅅ, or ㅈ, then the ㄹ in the last syllable of the first word is often dropped. So, since the first word 물 (water) ends with a ㄹ and the next word 사마귀 begins with a ㅅ, the word 물사마귀 is pronounced and written as 무사마귀. The same thing happens with the words 겨우내 (not 겨울내), which means "all winter long," and 겨우살이 (not 겨울살이), which means "winter clothes." So, even though the Korean word for "winter" is 겨울, not 겨우," the ㄹ in 겨울 is dropped in 겨우내 and 겨우살이 because the 내 in 겨우내 begins with a ㄴ, and the 살이 in 겨우살이 begins with a ㅅ.

So, that makes me wonder why the Korean words for "winter days" (겨울날), "winter bird" (겨울새)," and "winter sleep" or "hibernation" (겨울잠) are not written as 겨우날, 겨우새, and 겨우잠? Did someone screw up?

By the way, some Koreans, and some other Asians, consider a wart near one's mouth to be lucky, so some Koreans call such a wart a 복사마귀, which can literally translate as "a lucky (복) wart (사마귀)" since 복 (福) means "happiness," "blessing," or "good luck."

Below is a great Korean-language video, with Korean and English subtitles, that explains the difference between "a callous (굳은살), "a corn (티눈)," and "a wart (사마귀)."

From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary

From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary

From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary

From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary