If you have been browsing the Korean internet for a while, you might have encountered the word, ‘움짤[oom-jjal].’ ‘움짤’ refers to a short video clip that is usually in the GIF format. It’s one of the internet slang words that originated in the early days of the internet in Korea.
Let’s look at the etymology of the word. The first syllable, ‘움’ came from the word, ‘움직이는[oom-ji-gi-neun],’ which means ‘moving.’ The second syllable, ‘짤,’ has a more interesting origin.
DC Inside is a South Korean internet forum that was founded in 1999. Despite its controversial reputation, it continues to be one of the largest internet communities in Korea.
The name of the website, ‘DC Inside’ came from ‘digital camera.’ In the early days of the website, users were required to upload at least one image per each post. Otherwise, the post would be deleted. Thus, users started to upload random images to their posts, calling them ‘짤림방지[jjal-lim-bang-ji].’
‘짤림[jjal-lim]’ is a noun form of the verb ‘잘리다[jal-li-da],’ and ‘방지[bang-ji]’ means prevention. Hence, ‘짤림방지’ meant that the image was added to prevent the post from being deleted.
Soon, the abbreviated form of the word, ‘짤방[jjal-bang],’ started to refer to images attached to any internet posts. Nowadays, the more abbreviated form, ‘짤[jjal]’ is used to refer to images on the internet in general.
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