ANSWER: cheap
In the Korean language, the Sino-Korean word 편의 (便宜) means "convenience," not "cheap," as in 편의점 (便宜店), which means "convenience store," but in the Chinese language, 便宜 (편의) means "cheap," which is a little strange since convenience stores are known for being convenient, not for being cheap. The Chinese word for "convenience" is 方便 (방편), which my Korean-English dictionary defines as "expediency." Another Chinese word for "convenience" is 便利 (편리), which also means "convenience" in Korean, and the Chinese word for "convenience store" is 便利店 (편리점), not 便宜店 (편의점).
I am trying to teach myself to read Chinese using Korean pronunciations, and one of the things that I am noticing is that there are more Chinese words whose meanings do not match up with the meanings of their Sino-Korean equivalents than I had expected, and I find that more interesting than frustrating.
In Korean, the Chinese character 便 has two pronunciations: 편, which means "convenience," and 변, which means "feces" or "urine." So, do not confuse the two and write 편의점 (便宜店) as 변의점, which some people like me might intentionally mistranslate as "Feces (便) Suitable (宜) Store (店)."
Here are the words in the Chinese vocabulary list:
- 便宜 (편의) cheap, reasonable
- 便袐 (변비) constipation
- 大便 (대변) bowel movement
- 小便 (소변) to urinate
- 方便 (방편) convenient
- 不便 (불편) inconvenient
- 自便 (자편) help yourself
- 隨便 (수편) do as you like
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| From Understanding Chinese: A Guide to the Usage of Chinese Characters |
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| From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary |
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| From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary |
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