ANSWER: leave (of absence); furlough; day off
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| From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary |
The pure Korean word for "leave (of absence)" or "day off" is 말미, and the Sino-Korean word is 휴가 (休暇). And the Sino-Korean word for "to request a leave of absence or time off" is 청가 (請暇) since 청 (請) means "to ask for" or "to request" and 가 (暇) means "leisure time." Right?
Well, this morning I was reading through my Chinese grammar book and noticed the following sentence:
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| From A Reference Grammar of Chinese Sentences |
Notice that the Chinese reads as follows:
The teacher (老師 노사) today (今天 금천) has (有 유) business (事 사) [and so] requested (請) leave (假).
Notice that the Chinese use "old (老 노) master (師 사)" to mean "teacher," but also notice that instead of using 暇 (가) for "leave of absence" the Chinese used 假 (가), which in Korea means "pretend," "fake," or "temporary," as in 가면 (假面), which translates as "mask" but literally means "pretend (假) face (面)." So, when I saw the Chinese sentence above, I thought to myself, "Aha! I've found a mistake." But to make sure, I looked up the word 請假 (청가) in my Chinese dictionary, and this is what I found.
請假 (청가): to request (請求) for (給 급) a temporary (假 가) rest (休息 휴식) perhaps (或 혹) to take care of (辦理 판리) personal (私 사) business (事).
So, the Chinese word 請假 (청가) seems to be an abbreviation of 請假休息 (청가휴식), which can translate as "to request (請) temporary (假 가) rest (休息 휴식), and that means that the Chinese in my grammar book is not wrong, just weird. It seems that the Chinese just use 假 (가) for "holiday" instead of 暇 (가).
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| From Understanding Chinese: A Guide to the Usage of Chinese Characters |
Here is how Koreans write the Chinese for "leave of absence" and "to request leave of absence":
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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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