What does 發近達 (발근달) mean?

 ANSWER: bright (발근) moon (달)

The Chinese character 發 (발) means "to bloom" or "to come out"; 近 (근) means "near"; and 達 (달) means "to arrive at" or "to reach," but in the phrase 發近達 (발근달) the characters were not used for their meanings but rather for their pronunciations. Why? Because together the characters 發近達 (발근달) have the same pronunciation as the pure Korean phrase 밝은 달, which means "bright (밝은) moon (달)."

Before King Sejong invented Hangeul (한글), Koreans had to use Chinese characters to express themselves in writing, so to write "bright moon," they either had to use the Sino-Korean phrase 明月 (명월) or use the Chinese characters 發近達 (발근달) to represent the spoken pure-Korean phrase "밝은 달." The Chinese would have recognized 明月 as meaning "bright moon," but they wouldn't have recognized 發近達 as meaning "bright moon" unless they also spoke Korean.

In the video below, the speaker talks about 發近達 (발근달), but he also mentions 熱狗 (열구), which is the Chinese word for "hot dog." The Chinese character 熱 (열) means "hot," and 狗 (구) means "dog," so the Chinese borrowed the English phrase "hot dog" and literally translated it into Chinese.