삼

삼	U+C0BC, 삼 HANGUL SYLLABLE SAM

Composition:

ㅅ + ㅏ + ㅁ

← 삻
[U+C0BB]

Hangul Syllables

삽 →
[U+C0BD]

삐 ←	→ 새
사 삭 삮 삯 산 삱 삲 삳 살 삵 삶 삷 삸 삹 삺 삻삼삽 삾 삿 샀 상 샂 샃 샄 샅 샆 샇

Jeju

Etymology

Sino-Korean word from 三. Cognate with Korean 삼 (sam).

Pronunciation

(Morphophonemic) IPA^(key): ⫽sam⫽
(Jeju City) IPA^(key): [sʰa̠m]
Phonetic hangul: [삼]

Romanizations
Revised Romanization^?	sam
Revised Romanization (translit.)^?	sam
Yale Romanization^?	sam

Numeral

삼 (sam)

three
third

References

“삼” in Jeju's culture and language, Digital museum.

Korean

Pronunciation

(SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [sʰa̠m]
Phonetic hangul: [삼]

Romanizations
Revised Romanization^?	sam
Revised Romanization (translit.)^?	sam
McCune–Reischauer^?	sam
Yale Romanization^?	sam

Etymology 1

**Korean numbers ^(edit)**
	30
← 2	3	4 →
Native isol.: 셋 (set) Native attr.: 세 (se), (dated) 석 (seok), (archaic) 서 (seo) Sino-Korean: 삼 (sam) Hanja: 三 Ordinal: 셋째 (setjjae)

Sino-Korean word from 三.

Numeral

삼 • (sam) (hanja 三)

(Sino-Korean numeral) three

Usage notes

In modern Korean, numbers are usually written in Arabic numerals.

The Korean language has two sets of numerals: a native set of numerals inherited from Old Korean, and a Sino-Korean set which was borrowed from Middle Chinese in the first millennium C.E.

Native classifiers take native numerals.

개 한 마리 (gae han mari, “one dog”, native numeral)
나무 두 그루 (namu du geuru, “two trees”, native numeral)

Some Sino-Korean classifiers take native numerals, others take Sino-Korean numerals, while yet others take both.

종이 두 장(張) (jong'i du jang, “two sheets of paper”, native numeral)
이 분(分) (i bun, “two minutes”, Sino-Korean numeral)
서른/삼십 명(名) (seoreun/samsip myeong, “thirty people”, both sets possible)

Recently loaned classifiers generally take Sino-Korean numerals.

일 킬로미터 (il killomiteo, “one kilometer”, Sino-Korean numeral)

For many terms, a native numeral has a quantifying sense, whereas a Sino-Korean numeral has a sense of labeling.

세 반(班) (se ban, “three school classes”, native numeral)
삼 반(班) (sam ban, “Class Number Three”, Sino-Korean numeral)

When used in isolation, native numerals refer to objects of that number and are used in counting and quantifying, whereas Sino-Korean numerals refer to the numbers in a more mathematical sense.

하나만 더 주세 요 (hana-man deo juse-yo, “Could you give me just one more, please”, native numeral)
일 더하기 일은? (il deohagi ir-eun?, “What's one plus one?”, Sino-Korean numeral)

While older stages of Korean had native numerals up to the thousands, native numerals currently exist only up to ninety-nine, and Sino-Korean is used for all higher numbers. There is also a tendency—particularly among younger speakers—to uniformly use Sino-Korean numerals for the higher tens as well, so that native numerals such as 일흔 (ilheun, “seventy”) or 아흔 (aheun, “ninety”) are becoming less common.

Derived terms

See the hanja entry at 三 for Sino-Korean compounds of 삼 (三, sam).

Etymology 2

First attested as Late Old Korean 三 in the Jīlín lèishì (鷄林類事 / 계림유사)^[1], 1103. First attested in the Won'gakgyeong eonhae (圓覺經諺解 / 원각경언해), 1465, as Middle Korean 삼〮 (Yale: sám).

Noun

삼 • (sam)

hemp (Cannabis sativa)
Synonyms: 마(麻) (ma), 대마(大麻) (daema)

Derived terms

삼베 (sambe)
삼실 (samsil)

Etymology 3

Sino-Korean word from 蔘.

Noun

삼 • (sam) (hanja 蔘)

ginseng
Synonyms: 인삼(人蔘) (insam), (cant) 심 (sim)

Derived terms

See the hanja entry at 蔘 for Sino-Korean compounds of 삼 (蔘, sam).

Etymology 4

Verb

삼 • (sam)

verbal noun of 사다 (sada, “to buy”)