흙밥

Korean

FWOTD – 20 October 2021

Etymology

Of native Korean origin. From 흙 (heuk, “earth, soil”) +‎ 밥 (bap, “rice (as food)”). "Shovelful" from an imagery of a shovel as a spoon scooping rice; "death" probably from the imagery of the corpse becoming "food" for the earth.

Pronunciation

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [xɯk̚p͈a̠p̚]
• Phonetic hangul: [흑빱]

Romanizations
Revised Romanization?	heukbap
Revised Romanization (translit.)?	heulgbab
McCune–Reischauer?	hŭkpap
Yale Romanization?	hulkpap

Noun

흙밥 • (heukbap)

1. shovelful of soil; spadeful of soil; plow-ful of soil
2. (Yukjin, euphemistic) corpse; food for worms
   • 2019, 곽충구 [gwakchunggu, Kwak Chung-gu], 두만강 유역의 조선어 방언 사전 [duman'gang yuyeogui joseoneo bang'eon sajeon, Dictionary of Korean Dialects of the Tumen River Area], volume II, Taehaksa, →ISBN, page 3702:

     이 딸이 가 버어대니무 어저느 예 흙밥이 댄 디 오랍구마. (Yukjin)

     I ttar-i ga beo'eo-daeni-mu eojeo-neu ye heukbab-i daen di orapguma.

     If this daughter of mine didn't go out and make money, I would have ended up as food for worms long ago.

Further reading

• 곽충구 [Kwak Chung-gu] (2019) 두만강 유역의 조선어 방언 사전 [duman'gang yuyeogui joseoneo bang'eon sajeon, Dictionary of Korean Dialects of the Tumen River Area], volume II, Taehaksa, →ISBN, page 3702