I’m back with more Sino-Korean! The 의 in 의미 meaning comes from the Hanja 意 which means thought/idea/opinion. You’ll see 의 in words related to meaning, intention, willingness, and even carelessness.
의미: meaning/significance (everyday word)
의의: meaning/significance (more literary)
Respect and Consent
경의: respect/regard
경의하다: to regard (verb)
동의서: consent form
동의: agree/consent
동의하다: to consent (verb)
호의: courtesy/favor
성의: sincerity
동의하세요?: do you agree?
의미가 뭐라고 생각하세요?: what do you think it means?
Will and Creativity
유의하다: to pay attention to (verb)
의식: consciousness
무의식적: unconscious
의욕: will/drive
의지: willingness
득의: pride
열의: enthusiasm/eagerness
창의: creativity
넌 정말 창의력이 있잖아!: you’re so creative!
계획을 세울 때 몇 가지 유의할 점이 있어요: there are a few things to keep in mind when making plans
Breakdown of Intention
의도: intention (planned for a purpose)
의도적: intentionally/deliberately
고의: intention (regardless of purpose, more negative)
의향: intention (following your heart)
의향: inclination
Communication
반의어: antonym
의사소통: communication
주의보: advisory/watch (like weather watch)
의견: opinion
Unexpected and Negative 의 Words
의외: surprise/unexpected
의외로: surprisingly/unexpectedly
부주의: carelessness/negligence
무의미: meaningless
무의미하다: meaningless/useless (verb)
주의: caution
악의: ill will/spite
적의: hostility/animosity
이런 무의미한 논쟁은 그만하자: let’s stop this meaningless arguement
이번 주 강추위 주의하세요: watch out for the cold snap this weekend
2 Comments
Dax · February 22, 2025 at 4:27 pm
Very cool! I was speaking to someone from Seoul yesterday and thanks to your posts, he was impressed about some of my Korean cultural knowledge 😂. Something I found interesting though was that he said he had absolutely no knowledge of Hanja. I thought they would teach some Hanja for better understanding of etymology in Korean. Do you know if it’s common to know these things amongst Koreans?
Pam · February 22, 2025 at 6:06 pm
Thats cool you could connect with him about Korean culture! This feels like a glowing review of my cultural posts haha, I’m happy to help.
I’ve heard that Hanja is taught in school but most Koreans who learn it just learn to recognize the common basic ones (numbers 1-10, big, medium, small, directions, elements, etc.) and don’t go deeper and end up forgetting a lot. People in medical or academic fields are more likely to know more about Hanja, similar to doctors and scientists here knowing about the root origins from greek or latin for their vocabularly. So you don’t feel the need to remember the Hanja itself! Just focus on the 의 in 의미 and recognizing it elsewhere