0 후크The word that narrowed
"Eorida" means young. Five hundred years ago it meant foolish. · Built from lossless WAV audio; the uncompressed original is at brain-hz.com.
- 어리다 · eorida
- 어리석다 → 나이가 적다
- 무손실 원음 · WAV lossless
Words That Changed Meaning · 뜻이 바뀐 말
어리다 — 원래는 「어리석다」였다
In Korean, "young" used to mean "foolish"
표준국어대사전 어원 칸: 어리다 <<어리다(愚)<용비어천가 1447> · 어린이 <<어리니(幼)<경민편 개간본 1658>←어리-+-ㄴ+이 · 젊다 <<졂다<졈다(少)<석보상절 1447> · 어른 <어룬<얼운<석보상절 1447>←얼-+-우-+-ㄴ. 愚=어리석다, 幼=어리다(나이). 훈민정음 언해본 서문 「어린 百姓」의 어린이 이 뜻이다.
"Eorida" means young. Five hundred years ago it meant foolish. · Built from lossless WAV audio; the uncompressed original is at brain-hz.com.
Today it means young in age. But "his thinking is 어리다" still means immature — and that older sense is where the word began.
The dictionary marks 어리다 as 愚 — foolish — attested 1447. The Hunminjeongeum preface's "어린 百姓" meant the ignorant, not the young.
The dictionary records what and when, not why. But a child was seen as unripe in judgment, not merely young — so "foolish" and "young" once lived in one word.
어린이 (child, 1658), 젊다 / 젊은이 (young, 1447), 어른 (grown, from 얼운) — a whole family around age. Only 어리다 flipped its meaning.
Know a word's older meaning, and you stop misreading the hearts of those who came before.
말의 옛 뜻을 알면, 우리는 옛사람의 마음을 오해하지 않는다.