Korean · The Essential Kit
젠장
jenjang
jen-JAHNG · /tɕen.dʑaŋ/
Damn / dang it — the movie-subtitle curse.
coarse but friendly; fine among acquaintances
Literally
"(traditionally explained as a contraction of an old curse: 'may you be flogged and exiled')"
Word-for-word — which is rarely what it means.
How to use it
A wonderfully archaic curse — by the usual account, it compresses a Joseon-era punishment sentence ("beat him and banish him") into two syllables — that survives as the slightly bookish "damn." You'll hear it in dubbed movies and from people who'd rather not say 씨발 out loud; it has a faint old-timey, dramatic flavor, like an English speaker saying "blast it." Bar-safe 2, no target, no fight. If 아이씨 is the everyday valve, 젠장 is the one you use when you want to sound like the put-upon hero of your own drama.
Heard in the wild
젠장, 막차 끊겼어.
Damn, the last train's gone.
Where it lands
South Korea (universal); slightly literary/retro flavor, still said
Quick answers
- What does "젠장" mean?
- In Korean, "젠장" means "Damn / dang it — the movie-subtitle curse.". Literally it's "(traditionally explained as a contraction of an old curse: 'may you be flogged and exiled')". A wonderfully archaic curse — by the usual account, it compresses a Joseon-era punishment sentence ("beat him and banish him") into two syllables — that survives as the slightly bookish "damn." You'll hear it in dubbed movies and from people who'd rather not say 씨발 out loud; it has a faint old-timey, dramatic flavor, like an English speaker saying "blast it." Bar-safe 2, no target, no fight. If 아이씨 is the everyday valve, 젠장 is the one you use when you want to sound like the put-upon hero of your own drama.
- Is "젠장" offensive?
- It's on the mild end — 2/5 (Bar-safe) on the Punch-o-Meter. coarse but friendly; fine among acquaintances.
- How do you pronounce "젠장"?
- Say it "jen-JAHNG" — capitals mark the stressed syllable. In IPA: tɕen.dʑaŋ.
Related in Korean
The same idea, elsewhere
Via concepts like "Damn".
- French Putain ! Damn! / F***! / The all-purpose intensifier — punctuation, really
- German Scheiße! Shit! / Damn! — the all-purpose German expletive
- Greek γαμώτο Damn it! / Dammit!
- Italian Cazzo! Fuck! / Damn! / The all-purpose Italian curse.
- Japanese くそ Damn! / Crap! / Shit!
- Polish kurwa Fuck / damn / shit — the load-bearing word of Polish, and its most common comma.
- Portuguese Porra! Damn! / Fuck! — but mostly used as pure punctuation
- Russian Блин! Damn! / Darn! / Shoot!
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