Oxford English Dictionary adds seven new Korean words including ‘dalgona’ and ‘tteokbokki’
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This is the first time since September 2021 that the dictionary has added new Korean words. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has added seven new Korean words, including “dalgona” and “maknae”. According to the OED’s website on Tuesday, the words “noraebang,” “hyung,” “jjigae,” “tteokbokki” and “pansori” were also added in the December update. This is the first time since September 2021 that the dictionary has added these words.
![[The Oxford English Dictionary has added the word ‘maknae,’ which refers to ‘the youngest person in a family or group or the youngest member of a K-pop group’. Jungkook is the maknae of the popular boy band BTS]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/07/09/GettyImages-1551210101.jpg)
Dalgona, which entered the pop culture lexicon with the release of Netflix’s hit show Squid Game in 2021, is defined as a “Korean confection made by adding baking soda to melted sugar, typically sold by street vendors in the form of a flat disc with a simple shape such as a heart, star, etc., carved on its surface”.
![[A street food vendor prepares tteokbokki, or rice cakes cooked in a spicy sauce, in Busan]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/07/09/GettyImages-2187017721.jpg)
On Squid Game, cash-strapped contestants are given rounds of dalgona with shapes etched into it, which they have to carve out painstakingly while ensuring the brittle candy doesn’t crack. A popular game Koren children play, a single piece of dalgona candy costs about 2,000 won (£1.08) but some street vendors give a buy-one, get-one-free deal if you don’t crack the first one.
Maknae is “the youngest person in a family or group; the youngest member of a K-pop group”. Noraebang is a “private room which can be hired by a person or group to perform karaoke; an establishment featuring one or more of such rooms”. Hyung is defined as “a boy or man’s elder brother. Also as a respectful form of address or term of endearment, and in extended use with reference to an older male friend”.
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