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Lucy
What do these comic book onomatopoeia mean?
I have started to look at Korean webtoons online because I enjoy webtoons a lot in English and I thought it could help with my vocabulary.
I keep seeing these "sound effects"; not just in webtoons but also on social media:
꿈뻑
꿈쩍
쫍찍
쫌마/쫌맙
They are usually repeated twice or three times. They may be variations of the same thing but I'm not sure.
What do they mean? 무슨 뜻이에요?
May 16, 2017 6:34 PM
Answers · 1
* 꿈뻑 (껌벅 is the standard word, but 꿈벅 and other variations are also used).
It describes a light or the eyes blinking, once(껌벅) or multiple times(껌벅껌벅).
껌벅거리다 and 껌벅대다 are verbs describing repeated blinking. E.g. 동생은 졸린 듯이 눈을 껌벅거렸다.
* 꿈쩍 (꼼짝 is more widely used. 꼼짝 sounds smaller and lighter, while 꿈쩍 is bigger and heavier)
These are adverbs to describe a movement. They usually describe a single, slow movement, and used often in the negative.
For example, a threatening "Don't move!" in movies is usually translated as "꼼짝 마", where 마 (말다) means "don't do".
Examples:
- 형은 세 시간 동안 꿈쩍도 안 하며 콤퓨터만 보고 있다 = My brother's been looking at the computer screen for three hours without even budging.
- 발을 다쳐서 집에서 꼼짝도 못한다 = I'm housebound unable to move because of my injured foot.
- 이대로 있으면 꼼짝없이 당한다 = If we stay put like this, we'll be screwed.
(꼼짝없이 is a common adverb for "helplessly", "as if trapped", "with no way out", etc)
* 쫍찍, 쫌마, 쫌맙
These are all useless non-words that probably not even one tenth of a percent of Koreans know.
They are not listed even at the Naver dictionary for example, which allows ordinary people to list new slang terms they know.
May 17, 2017
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Lucy
Language Skills
English, Korean
Learning Language
Korean
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