쓰다
From Jonathan Gardner's Korean Notebook
- (타동사) to write, to draw, to compose, etc...
- To draw the strokes forming letters with a pen, pencil, brush, etc...;
- To write, as in a book or letter.
- (타동사)to wear, to put on, to cover, etc...
- To put something on a head, like a hat;
- To use above the head as a covering, such as an umbrella.
- To cover the face, such as a mask.
- To completely cover the head, as with a blanket.
- To hang on the face, such as eyeglasses.
- To cover the entire body in filth.
- To wear a gross false accusation or an unjustly attributed crime.
- (타동사)to use, to employ, etc...
- To use or employ (이용하다, 사용하다)
- To use ingredients in cooking (삼다)
- To use a particular method of doing something (삼다)
- To consume or spend, wastefully. (소비하다, 낭비하다)
- To use men to do work.
- To play or move around with your body. (놀리다, 움직이다)
- To exert your strength or heart for something.
- To choose, select (체택하다)
- To serve food to people. (대접하다)
- To apply medicine. (바르다)
- To employ stubbornly. (부리다)
- To employ one's authority officially. (행사하다)
- To incur a debt. (빚을 지다)
- (타동사) to bury, to inter
- To bury a body and create a grave (무덤).
- (타동사)to move
- (형용사) bitter, sour, tasteless
- To taste of Sumac. (bitter, sour)
- To lack of flavor.
- To feel troubled and unsettled in your heart.
Notes
- The first definition has two senses: One, to actually form the lines that make a letter and words and paragraphs and documents. Two, to write some kind of literary work, whether an informal letter or a poem or novel. 쓰다 has a strong connection to writing and drawing here. You should imagine an old Korean scholar using his brush to carefully put words together when you hear it used like this.
- For the second definition, keep in mind that the head is the critical factor here. Putting clothes on the body, or covering the body, is 입다. Putting covering on the feet is 신다. Putting covering on the hands is 끼다.
- The covering with a hat is obvious. Always 쓰다 a hat, just like you always 신다 a shoe or sock.
- The umbrella usage is confused with the 'to use' version. Keep in mind that the key here is that you cover your head, not employ the mechanism to open the umbrella. In English, we say "use" or even "take" to imply using the umbrella to cover the head; Koreans are much more literal than that. You may catch one saying, "Wear this umbrella home."
- For the mask usage, again, the covering sense is important, versus what we might say in English "use" as in employ.
- For the eyeglasses reference, this hints that 쓰다 might actually be referring to how the wearer views the world. Eyeglasses indeed cover the windows of the face, and seem to cover the face from the perspective of the user.
- For the filth part, Koreans have a strong sense that your face shows the filthiness in the rest of your body. Oftentimes, the morning bathing routine is simply to wash one's face. If the face is clean, then the rest of the body must be clean too. Obviously, they don't have a huge body odor issue in Korea. Note that traditionally, the entire body was covered with ample clothing, and the hands kept hidden up the opposite sleeve. So the only hint at a human under the clothing was the face.
- For the final sense of this second definition, the important sense here is that, like a mask, these charges or wrongly self-attributed crimes are simply a mask the person wears and refuses to take off. Here, we see the sense that this word really has to do much with how the wearer sees the world.
- The third definition is, by far, the broadest. Anytime you use the word 'use' in English, it's probably appropriate to use '쓰다'. There are some strange outlying cases here which you should pay attention to. 쓰다, because of its broad definition here, is generally only appropriate if the action isn't the heart of the expression. It's a "small word" that simply links the bigger ideas together.
- I have never heard 쓰다 used in the fourth sense.
- The fifth sense almost makes sense if you use the word "employ" from the third sense.
- The sixth sense is extremely common. 쓰다 is that taste you get when you eat something sour or bitter. However, I've noticed Koreans use it often to mean "not sweet" or even, "not salty", and sometimes, "overly fermented". I've heard Koreans use it to describe Indian food, with its excess spices. The overall sense here is that something important is missing, but it's hard to put your finger on it.
- Importantly, this is not necessarily a bad flavor! In standard Korean honesty, if something tastes sour or bitter, don't be afraid to say so. Korean cuisine is noteworthy because all flavors are to be experienced at the same time, in balance. Saying something is bitter is no worse than saying something is sweet---both represent out-of-balance flavors.
