까마귀

Korean

Etymology

First attested as Late Old Korean 柯馬鬼 in the Jīlín lèishì (鷄林類事 / 계림유사)^[1], 1103.

First attested in the Yongbi eocheon'ga (龍飛御天歌 / 용비어천가), 1447, as Middle Korean 가마괴〮 (Yale: kàmàkwóy).

Also attested in the Worin seokbo (月印釋譜 / 월인석보), 1459, as Middle Korean 가마귀〮 (Yale: kàmàkwúy).

The influential mid-twentieth-century linguist Heo Ung believed this was 감- (Yale: kam-, “to be black”) + -아괴〮 (Yale: -àkwóy, rare noun-deriving suffix), and most Korean etymologists have followed his lead. Compare 뜨더귀 (tteudeogwi, “something torn to pieces”), from 뜯다 (tteutda, “to pluck, to tear”).

But also compare 가마오〮디 (Yale: kàmàwótì, “cormorant”, a pitch-black seabird) > modern 가마우지 (gamauji), where bisyllabic /kàmà/ would appear to be the morpheme for "black", cf. 오지 (oji, “cormorant”, dialectal).

Pronunciation

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [k͈a̠ma̠ɡɥi] ~ [k͈a̠ma̠ɡy]
• Phonetic hangul: [까마귀]

Romanizations
Revised Romanization?	kkamagwi
Revised Romanization (translit.)?	kkamagwi
McCune–Reischauer?	kkamagwi
Yale Romanization?	kkamakwi

• South Gyeongsang (Busan) pitch accent: 까마귀의 / 까마귀에 / 까마귀까지

  Syllables in red take high pitch. This word always takes high pitch on the second syllable, and lowers the pitch of subsequent suffixes.

Noun

까마귀 • (kkamagwi)

1. crow, raven

Derived terms

idioms

• 까마귀 고기를 먹었나 (kkamagwi gogireul meogeonna)

compounds

• 갈까마귀 (galkkamagwi, “jackdaw”)
• 떼까마귀 (ttekkamagwi, “rook”)

Related terms

• 까막까치 (kkamakkkachi, “crows and magpies”)
• 까맣다 (kkamata, “to be pitch-black”)

See also

• 까치 (kkachi): magpie