덕질

‘덕질[deok-jil]’ is one of the words that show how dynamically Korean words can evolve.

Let’s look at the etymology. The second syllable of the word, ‘질[jil]’ is a common Korean suffix. It is attached to nouns and makes the word mean an action related to the noun.

For example, the word, ‘손가락질[son-ga-rak-jil],’ is a combination of ‘손가락[son-ga-rak],’ which means a finger, and the suffix ‘질[jil].’ ‘손가락질’ means the act of pointing a finger at something or someone.

Then, where did the first syllable ‘덕[deok]’ came from? There is a word ‘덕[deok]’ in Korean, which means ‘virtue.’ However, the word ‘덕질’ came from a different origin.

The word actually originated from the famous Japanese word, ‘otaku.’ According to the Google’s English Dictionary, ‘otaku’ means “a young person who is obsessed with computers or particular aspects of popular cultures to the detriment of their social skills.”

When internet subculture started to develop in Korea, Korean subculture fans started to call themselves ‘오덕후[oh-deok-hoo],’ which is a playful variation of the word ‘otaku.’

There is a wordplay, because ‘덕[deok]’ originally means ‘virtue’ in Korean. When they say “덕을 쌓다,” it originally means that one does a lot of good deeds. However, in the context of subculture, it means that the person spends a lot of time on a certain type of subculture.

‘덕질[deok-jil]’ is a word that refers to the act of digging into a subculture and ‘덕[deok]’ or ‘덕후[deok-hoo]’ means a person who is into a certain type of subculture. For example, a person who is heavily into K-pop idols is called ‘돌덕[dol-deok]’ and the act of following K-pop idols is called ‘돌덕질[dol-deok-jil].’