Sino-Korean word from男性, from男(“male”) +性(“sex, gender”)
| Romanizations |
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| Revised Romanization? | namseong |
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| Revised Romanization (translit.)? | namseong |
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| McCune–Reischauer? | namsŏng |
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| Yale Romanization? | namseng |
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남성• (namseong) (hanja男性)
- male,men
- Coordinate term:여성(女性)(“woman, female”)
Korean has a number of words equivalent to English "man" and "woman".
- Sino-Korean남자 (男子,namja, “boy; guy; man”) and여자 (女子,yeoja, “girl; woman”) are the most common words, but can have a somewhat informal connotation.
걔는남자야? —아니,여자야.- Gyae-neunnamja-ya? - ani,yeoja-ya.
- Is he/she a guy? — No, she's a girl.
남자친구 /여자친구- namja-chin'gu /yeoja-chin'gu
- boyfriend /girlfriend
- Sino-Korean남성 (男性,namseong, “male; men”) and여성 (女性,yeoseong, “female; women”) refer to men and women as groups—though pluralized남자들(namja-deul,“the boys; the guys; the men”) and여자들(yeoja-deul,“the girls; the women”) is informally more common for this purpose—or to individual adult men and women in formal or polite contexts.
여성인권운동- yeoseong in'gwon undong
- women's rights movement, feminism
20대남성이실종되었습니다.(in a news report)- 20daenamseong-i siljongdoe-eot-seumnida.
- Aman in his twenties has gone missing.
- Sino-Korean여인 (女人,yeoin, “woman”) is literary. There is no male counterpart.
- The bare Sino-Korean morphemes남 (男,nam, “male”) and여 (女,yeo, “female”) is generally used in formal contexts, especially when referring to each gender as a collective but also for male or female individuals in more legalistic contexts. They are commonly written inhanja even when the rest of the text is in pure Hangul script.
남과여의만남- nam-gwayeo-ui mannam
- the meeting ofMan andWoman
- Native사내(sanae,“man”) and계집(gyejip,“woman”) are not as commonly used.사내(sanae) often has a connotation ofmachismo ormanliness, while계집(gyejip) has become offensive and derogatory.
Note that in Early Modern Korean (1600—c. 1900) and in contemporary Standard North Korean, Sino-Korean여 (女,yeo, “female”) is written and pronounced녀 (nyeo), hence녀자 (女子,nyeoja),녀성 (女性,nyeoseong),녀인 (女人,nyeoin).
- 남녀 (男女,namnyeo, “men and women”)
