"대" in "남대문" When I lived in 수원, we often went to 남문 and the shopping areas around there. I always understood 남문 to mean "South Gate." I also remember in 서울 there is 남대문 and 동대문 and the areas aroun

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Steve

"대" in "남대문" When I lived in 수원, we often went to 남문 and the shopping areas around there. I always understood 남문 to mean "South Gate." I also remember in 서울 there is 남대문 and 동대문 and the areas around there. At the time, I understood 남대문 to mean "Great South Gate" and distinguished it in my mind from 남문 in 수원 with that. With that understanding, I just understood 대 to mean "great" in that particular case. I don't remember any other case where I remember thinking of "대" as "great," though. Now, I'm reading in the glossary of this textbook where 남대문 is translated just as "South Gate." So now I'm questioning my understanding. What is the meaning of "대" in 남대문 and 동대문? Is it used the same way in other cases?

19 ก.พ. 2011 เวลา 0:14

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The '대' (大) in '남대문' and '동대문' does indeed mean 'great' or 'large'. Compare this with, say, '서소문' (西小門). The typical English translation of '남대문' is 'Great South Gate'. Omitting the 'Great' from the English translation of '남대문' is just giving it an inaccurate translation. It's worth pointing out, however, that '남대문' and '동대문' are not the actual names of the gates but are the names given by the Japanese. Most signage has now been changed to refer to the gates' original names: 숭례문 and 흥인지문, respectively.

19 กุมภาพันธ์ 2011

서대문 is 'west gate'. 북대문 is 'north gate'. 대 is means 'great'. so your understanding is right. example, 대한민국 is Great 한국 대자연 is Great Nature. 대우주 is Great Universe. 대가족 is Large Family. 대 of 대문(大門) is also a Chinese character. 대(大) means Great, Big, Large, ...... 문 is door. 대문 is gate, entrance of hole house. so, 대문 is of course big than 문. because entrance gate is big than door. well, my english is poor and so my explain is also poor. but i just hope you understand well. thank you. BUT, WE USUALLY THINK OF '대문' IS JUST ENTRANCE GATE

19 กุมภาพันธ์ 2011

대 means big. so, 남대문 is the big gate of south. anyway, have you lived in suwon. i live in suwon now. glad to meet you ..

19 กุมภาพันธ์ 2011

Yes, possible. In 남대문, 남 is 南. In 남자, 남 is 男. This is where the pun comes from. There're some puns like this.

23 กุมภาพันธ์ 2011

Hailey, I have a follow up question after thinking more. With your usage, is it possible I may have heard another pun formed from this where 여대문 was used to refer to a woman's zipper?

20 กุมภาพันธ์ 2011

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