If 처 (妻) means "wife" and 형 (兄) means "elder brother," what does 처형 (妻兄) mean?

ANSWER: A wife's elder sister, of course.

If 매 (妹) means "younger sister" and 형 (兄) means "elder brother," what does 매형 (妹兄) mean?

ANSWER: An elder sister's husband, of course.

One of the most confusing things about the Korean language is family relationships.

What's the difference between 백수 and 백세?

ANSWER: One means "100 years old," and the other means "99 years old."

In the video below, they are celebrating the upcoming birthday of Archbishop Emeritus Yoon Kong-hi (윤공희), whose Christian name is Victorinus Yoon Kong-hi (윤공희 빅토리노). The Korean description of the video says that they are celebrating the archbishop's "100th birthday" (백세 百歲), but the banner on the wall in the video reads: "윤공희 빅토리노 대주교 백수 白壽 감사미사 2022. 8. 27," so they are celebrating his 백수 (白壽), not his 백세 (百歲).

Since the Archbishop was born on November 8, 1924, he would have been only 97 years old when the video was made on August 27, 2022, and 98 years old on his birthday that year. But since Koreans traditionally consider themselves to be 1 year old at birth, the archbishop's Korean age would have been 99 on January 1, 2023 since, instead of on their birthdays, Koreans wait until the start of the new year to add that extra year. So, why would they be celebrating his 100th birthday when his Korean age would be only 99?

ANSWER: They are not celebrating his 100th birthday; they are celebrating his 99th birthday.

The Sino-Korean word 백세 (百歲) means "100 years old," and the Sino-Korean word 백수 (白壽) means "99 years old." Notice that the 백 in 백세 (百歲) is written using the Chinese character 百, which means "100," so since the character 歲 (세) means "years," 백세 (百歲) literally means "100 (百) years (歲)." But the 백 in 백수 (白壽) is written as 白, which means "white," so since the Chinese character 壽 (수) can mean "age," 백수 (白壽) literally means "white (白) age (壽)."  But why does "white age" (白壽) mean 99? Because the only difference between writing the Chinese character for "100" (百) and the character for "white" (白) is the stroke "一" (일), which means "one." So, if you take "one" (一) from 100 (百), you get "99" (白).

The person who posted the video below seems to have mistakenly thought that both 백세 (百歲) and 백수 (白壽)  mean "100 years old," but only 백세 百歲 means "100 years old; 백수 (白壽) means "99 years old."

This is an example of why studying Chinese characters can help people better understand Korean.

Which is correct: 벌서다 or 벌쓰다?

ANSWER: Apparently, now they are both correct.

My 1998 edition of "Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary" defines 벌쓰다 as "be punished; suffer punishment; [of a child] stand in the corner," and the verb 벌서다 is not even listed in the dictionary. So, according to my Dong-A dictionary, 벌쓰다 is a passive verb that means "to be punished," and 벌씌우다 is a transitive verb that means "to punish," including the punishment of having a child stand in a corner.

1998 "Dong-A's Prime" Dictionary

However, my 2014 edition of "Minjung's Essence Korean-English Dictionary" defines 벌쓰다 simply as "to suffer punishment," without mentioning anything about [a child] standing in a corner. Instead, it lists the verb 벌서다 and defines it as the punishment "stand in the corner." In other words, my 2014 Essence dictionary separates the punishment of a child standing in a corner from other punishments. So, if a child or person is punished in any other way besides standing in a corner, the verb 벌쓰다 should be used instead of 벌서다.

2014 "Essence" Dictionary

So, either my Dong-A dictionary got it wrong in 1998 or else between 1998 and 2014, the verb 벌서다 became standardized as the verb that refers to the punishment of "[a child] standing in a corner."

Now, I want to know why Koreans say "wear/write" (쓰다) punishment and "stand" (서다) punishment. Could 벌쓰다 be a reduced form of "쓰는 벌을 받다," which could translate as "to receive a writing punishment"? And could 벌서다 be a reduced form of 서는 벌을 받다, which could translate as "to receive a standing punishment"? So, instead of saying, "벌로 쓰라" ("As punishment, write!") and "벌로 서라" ("As punishment, stand!"), did the teacher just say, "벌쓰라 and "벌서라"?

Not many adults are punished by having them stand is a corner, so maybe the verbs 벌쓰다 and 벌서다 were originally referring to punishments for school children. If a student talked in class, for example, and was told to write 100 times "I will not talk in class" as punishment, could that have been "a writing punishment" (쓰는 벌), and if a student was told to stand in the corner as punishment for something, could that have been "a standing punishment" (서는 벌)? I do not know it that was the origins of the verbs 벌쓰다 and 벌서다; I am just thinking out loud now.